The Legal and Ethical Considerations of Marketing in America - Assignment Example

Legal and Ethical Issues in Marketing in America College: Legal and Ethical Issues in Marketing in America Marketing isone of the most crucial aspects of the business in the modern business environment. Marketing helps the business organization to reach out to their potential customers and to incite them to purchase their goods and services. In the competitive era, organizations have revamped their advertisement strategies to ensure that they are able win loyal customers who can help them survive in the competitive business environment.

However, increase in the ambition to advertise within the social media has raised many legal and ethical concerns within the public. In America the federal trade commission has pointed out that legal and ethical issues concerning the truthfulness of marketing information, the decency of the information among many other issues are crucial. For a business organization to market effectively, it is crucial to understand that legal and ethical issues that are likely to affect their marketing criteria.

A major issue has risen up with the truthfulness of the content that organizations use to market their products. The FTC provides that all American companies that advertise products make truthful statement concerning the good and bad sides of the product (Gahalaut, Chauhan, Mishra, Rastogi & Thakur, 2014). FTC terms false statements as those that are incorrect from the product and one that inhibits the consumer from making the right decision while making a purchase. For instance, marketing of tobacco has been an issue of concern within the community.

Tobacco companies have always concealed the information concerning the negative health impacts of cigarette within the public. As a result many among the youths who get in tobacco smoking are unaware of the fact that this product can cause diseases such as cancer. On this ground, all the tobacco companies are supposed to stick a warning message of the packets to inform the public about the harm of these products. However, there has been a general feeling that the warning messages are inconspicuous and that they should be clearer for the public to see.

Secondly, the use of pornographic content in advertising has become a matter of ethical concern. The content of the advertisement is an important consideration in American and legal actions can be taken against those who use sexual content in advertising their products. The general feeling within the business environment is that people are fond of sexual content and that this is good way to attract them into buying products. However, the FTC asserts that such products are fuelling sexual immorality in the society at the benefit of the organization.

In 1910, the Woodbury’s Facial soap meant for women was almost discontinued for using nude images to advertise the product. In the recent past, there has been particular concern for use of sexual content in advertising products within the television and magazines that are often watched by children (Gahalaut, Chauhan, Mishra, Rastogi & Thakur, 2014). However, there seems to a be a great lax in controlling this kind of advertisement as the sexual content with all forms of media is currently used by American companies in advertisements.

The public has criticized the federal bodies for failing to control the use of such content within the media. In addition, a concern has been raised regarding unhealthy competition in advertisement. For instance, a company may use criticism of the competitors’ products to promote their own products. In the bid to outdo each other, companies have used defamation strategies in advertisements to point their competitor’s product as weak and unusable. Various companies have complained over use of such negative behavior in advertisement.

For a company to roll out its products, it is crucial that they give information regarding their own products without necessarily inciting the public against the products provided by their competitors. This has become a serious ethical issue as companies sue each other for defamation and for inciting consumers against their products (Sego, 2002). While this is an issue that the FTC has given little attention, it is a serious issue that they should focus on to ensure that companies compete fairly within the market.

For a company to launch a strong advertisement plan, it is crucial to develop an un-offensive marketing approach to ensure that they do not face legal accusations. Marketing regulation bodies have shown great concern for the ethical and legal issues that have risen up in marketing. In America the FTC developed an FTC act to regulate the marketing strategies used in marketing. FTC pays attention to the content and channels of advertisement to ensure that any ethical issues are addressed. Currently, the have been extremely concerned with use of truth information in advertisement especially when it comes to drugs.

The FTC requires that every organization provide factual information to the public and to provide evidence to ensure that the public have the right information to make informed decisions. However, it is clear that FTC has yet to react to the problems of advertisement especially concerning the use of sexual content in advertisement and use of defamation in advertisement. In this perspective, the FTC act should be reformed to include more strict information (Solove & Hartzog, 2014). It would be crucial to prohibit use of sexual content in advertisement to ensure that the public are more comfortable with what they watch of the various media channels.

In conclusion, marketing is crucial aspect of the business and the management should be aware of the various ethical and legal issues that affect advertisements. The ability of an organization to avoid any legal and ethical issues will help them to avoid possible confrontation with the law and loss of organizational image. The Marketing regulations in America are strict about the use of truthful information in advertisements to ensure that the public make informed decisions when purchasing products such as drugs.

The increase in use of sexual content in advertisement is triggering criticism from the public, which is likely to affect the consumption of such goods. In addition, defaming a company to discourage consumers from purchasing their products is an issue that has resulted to court cases in recent past. It is recommendable that the FTC act be reformed to address emerging issues in modern marketing. References Gahalaut, P., Chauhan, S., Mishra, N., Rastogi, M., & Thakur, R. (2014). Drug advertisements in two dermatology journals: A critical comparison of IJDVL and JAAD.

Indian Journal Of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology, 80(2), 115-121. doi:10.4103/0378-6323.129381 Sego, T. (2002). Consumers Ethical Judgments of Issue Advertising. Advances In Consumer Research, 29(1), 80-85. Solove, D. J., & Hartzog, W. (2014). The Ftc And The New Common Law Of Privacy. Columbia Law Review, 114(3), 583-676.