“ETHICS” IN ADVERTISING
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc. Major branches of ethics include:-
ü 
Meta-ethics, about the
theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their
truth-values (if any) may be determined;
ü Normative
ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;
ü Applied
ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;
ü Moral
psychology, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its
nature is;
ü Descriptive
ethics, about what moral values people actually abide by.
ETHICS IN ADVERTISING
Lack of acceptable code
of ethics in advertising is a worldwide phenomenon. Morality in advertising
varies from country to country. An advertisement may be morally acceptable in
one part of the world, whereas, ti may be against eh code of morality in
another part of the world. The importance of advertising is "steadily on
the increase in modern society." That observation, made by this Pontifical
Council a quarter century ago as part of an overview of the state of
communications, is even more true now. Just as the media of social
communication themselves have enormous influence everywhere, so advertising,
using media as its vehicle, is a pervasive, powerful force shaping attitudes
and behavior in today's world. Especially since the Second Vatican Council, the
Church has frequently addressed the question of the media and their role and
responsibilities. She has sought to do so in a fundamentally positive manner,
viewing the media as "gifts of God" which, in accordance with his
providential design, bring people together and "help them to cooperate
with his plan for their salvation."
In
doing so, the Church stresses the responsibility of media to contribute to the
authentic, integral development of persons and to foster the well being of
society. "The information provided by the media is at the service of the
common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom,
justice and solidarity."
Our
reason for addressing these matters is simple. In today's society, advertising
has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves,
especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving.
These are matters about which the Church is and must be deeply and sincerely
concerned. The field of advertising is extremely broad and diverse. In general
terms, of course, an advertisement is simply a public notice meant to convey
information and invite patronage or some other response. As that suggests,
advertising has two basic purposes: to inform and to persuade, and — while these
purposes are distinguishable — both very often are simultaneously present. Advertising
is not the same as marketing (the complex of commercial functions involved in
transferring goods from producers and consumers) or public relations (the
systematic effort to create a favorable public impression or ?image' of some
person, group, or entity). In many cases, though, it is a technique or
instrument employed by one or both of these.
Advertising
can be very simple — a local, even? Neighborhood,' phenomenon — or it can be
very complex, involving sophisticated research and multimedia campaigns that
span the globe. It differs according to its intended audience, so that, for
example, advertising aimed at children raises some technical and moral issues
significantly different from those raised by advertising aimed at competent
adults.
The
primary objective of advertising in any society is to influence the independent
thinking of the people and change their behavior. Nevertheless, advertising has
also some social responsibilities to inform people of the various choices
available and educate them about the superiority of a given product by
explaining its characteristics. Thus the consumers can freely decide for
themselves as to which product to buy and which products to avoid. There are
some areas of concern where advertisers need to be more responsible to
community needs:-
Advertising is considered to be an
environmental pollutant: Most
advertising is opposed by people because it is difficult to absorb. It is too
pervasive and too intrusive in peoples personal lives. In this context it is considered
a pollutant for mental environment. This is specially true about TV
advertising, Television advertising is intrusive as the TV medium reaches a
heterogeneous audience of all ages, all educational levels, all religions, all
regional and ethnic groups etc. it is often impossible for a commercial to
speak openly and constructively to a major section of a TV programme’s audience
without seeming inappropriate, boring or even offensive to another segment of
the same programme’s audience.
The issues of morals and tastes in
advertising: Since
advertising is unavoidable, some forms of it may become a burden on the
consumer. There are advertisements which may be offensive, misleading or simply
annoying. For example, some people who do not drink may consider all liquor’s
advertising as morally offensive. Similarly, in some countries prostitution is
legal, but advertisement of prostitutes is morally offensive. On the other
hand, the products itself may not be morally offensive, but its presentation
may be in bad taste. Too noisy commercials, overly repetitive commercials and
commercials that disregard consumer’s intelligence are considered to be in bad
taste. Even though some critics of advertising argue that the advertising is
directed towards the audience which is the average mass of people and not the
chosen elite. Hence the advertisers advertise what they believe the audience
wants to see and hear and they are willing to absorb the dissatisfaction of a
few who may find some advertising below their expected standards of decency.
Not
only are many different media and techniques employed in advertising;
advertising itself is of several different kinds: commercial advertising for
products and services; public service advertising on behalf of various
institutions, programs, and causes; and — a phenomenon of growing importance
today — political advertising in the interests of parties and candidates.
Making allowance for the differences among the different kinds and methods of
advertising, we intend what follows to be applicable to them all.
Advertisers
are selective about the values and attitudes to be fostered and encouraged,
promoting some while ignoring others. This selectivity gives the lie to the
notion that advertising does no more than reflect the surrounding culture. For
example, the absence from advertising of certain racial and ethnic groups in
some multi-racial or multi-ethnic societies can help to create problems of
image and identity, especially among those neglected, and the almost inevitable
impression in commercial advertising that an abundance of possessions leads to
happiness and fulfillment can be both misleading and frustrating.
Advertising
also has an indirect but powerful impact on society through its influence on
media. Many publications and broadcasting operations depend on advertising
revenue for survival. This often is true of religious media as well as
commercial media. For their part, advertisers naturally seek to reach audiences;
and the media, striving to deliver audiences to advertisers, must shape their
content so to attract audiences of the size and demographic composition sought.
This economic dependency of media and the power it confers upon advertisers
carries with it serious responsibilities for both.
Main
Objections to Advertising
·
Advertising is
deceptive—in whole or in part.
·
Advertising weakens or
undermines personal autonomy; that some kinds of advertising are immoral. Advertising plays on human desires for
security, acceptance, self-esteem to influence consumer
choices. John Kenneth Galbraith’s: the Dependence Effect—industrial production turns out goods to satisfy wants, and at the
same time creates the wants. Ex: mouthwash, anti- persperant, So production is no long justifiable, the market is
no longer self-correcting, and human
autonomy is undermined.
·
Advertising promotes
consumption as way of life (Christopher Lasch); it empties communication of its content, destroys
credence in the written or spoken word (Robert Heilbroner);
it is (often) tasteless and irritating, and lowers culture in general
·
Economic objection:
Advertising is a waste of resources (adds nothing to the value of consumer products and diverts resources
from the production of more valuable goods) and inefficient (enables large firms with well-established
brand-name products to create and maintain
monopoly conditions), largely a nonproductive activity that stifles
competition. Which would mean
that it actually harms the system in general.
Ethical
Principles especially relevant to Advertising
o
Principles of the moral order must be applied to the domain of media
o
Human freedom has a purpose: making an authentic moral response. All
attempts to inform and persuade must respect the purposes of human freedom if
they are to be moral.
o
Morally good advertising therefore is that advertising that seeks to
move people to choose and act rationally in morally good ways; morally evil
advertising seeks to move people to do evil deeds that are self-destructive and
destructive of authentic community
o
Means and techniques of advertising must also be considered:
manipulative, exploitative, corrupt and corrupting methods of persuasion and
motivation
Three Specific Moral Principles
- RESPECT
TRUTHFULNESS (deception objection)
- Never directly intend to deceive
- Never use simply untrue advertising
- Do not distort the truth by implying things that are
not so or withholding relevant facts
- "Puffery" is acceptable where it is
consonant with recognized and accepted rhetorical and symbolic practice
- RESPECT
THE DIGNITY OF EACH HUMAN PERSON (attacks autonomy objection)
- Do not exploit our "lower inclinations" to
compromise our capacity to reflect or decide either through its content
or through its impact: using appeals to lust, vanity, envy and greed, and
other human weakness.
- Give special care to the weak and vulnerable:
children, young people, the elderly, the poor, and the culturally
disadvantaged
- RESPECT
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES (promotes consumption, empties communication, objections)
- Example: Concern for the ecology—advertising should
not favor a lavish lifestyle which wastes resources and despoils the
environment
Comments
Post a Comment