Unethical advertising - Essay Example

? Advertising The term advertising refers to a form of communication, conducted usually by marketers directed towards consumers (Wells, pp. 29-34), to inform them about products and services available and persuade them to buy and avail them. Advertising can be possible by various means, such as on billboards, online, in newspapers and magazines, by word of mouth etc. In specific, there are two major types of advertising, known as ethical and unethical advertising. Unethical advertising, as the name suggests, is preparing such advertisements that do not comply with the general norms of advertising and do not meet certain requirements. Various types of advertisements considered as unethical will be a part of discussion below. With the passage of time, the ethics of advertising is diminishing and many a times one notice advertising and promotion of products and services taking place on unethical grounds. In this regard, unethical advertising techniques should definitely not be in utilization while promoting a product or service. There are various types of advertising considered unethical and business experts are putting efforts to avoid implementation of such methods in the future. The first example of unethical advertising is mentioning of something in the advertisement that the company cannot provide (Petley, pp. 56-60). Using advertisements that provide false claims and makes the public believe in something that is not true is a mere example of unethical advertising. This usually happens with several products such as detergents, where the advertisement says that the clothes washed with the specific detergent will look as clean as new, but that never happens. This also happens in various weight loss plans advertisements, where it says that a person using the product will lose 50 pounds in two weeks, but this does not actually happen for all customers using the product and thus, experts have been considering this as unethical. This type of advertising should confront bans due to its unethical nature, as it does not provide what it claims to be advertising for. Such is one example of unethical advertising. Moreover, another common instance of unethical advertising is the advertisements prepared for products, such as cigarettes and drugs. This type of advertising is surely illegal, as well as unethical, as it promotes a product that is harmful for the human body (MacRury, pp. 34-39). Children who might come across such an advertisement might find it fascinating that they can avail the product that supposedly helps them get over all their problems and worries, while they are unaware of the amount of damage such products can cause to their bodies. Moreover, advertisements designed in the political realm have often found to be unethical as they provide information that is not true, done, in order to get the public to cast a vote for them by providing false information. For example, a person running for the post of a president for a country may claim to have donated a huge amount of money to flood victims etc; however, may not have done so actually. This might be done just in order to gain the public votes and therefore, this type of advertising is surely considered unethical. A very common type of unethical advertising, which is used, is advertisements that say promote “$1 products.” However, when one actually picks up a product and comes to pay for it, they come to know that very few products are of one dollar, the others have their own specific prices, and the customer is forced to buy the items, in order to avoid the embarrassment by the shopkeeper that they cannot afford the product (Wells, pp. 69-74). Another type of unethical advertising is that an advertisement can have a negative psychological impact on a person, and cause them to experience psychological problems in the end (MacRury, pp. 20-25). For example, using the image of a monster in a children’s cereal ad may frighten them and have a lasting impact on their minds. This type of advertising should most certainly not be in use as it harms the mindset of the children who watch such an advertisement and have a long run impact on the child’s mind. It might leave an impact on their mind and haunt them for the rest of their life, because of which such advertising is unethical. Advertisements are often designed, where the product being offered is displayed as much larger and better looking in the advertisement itself, but such is not the case in reality. McDonald’s recently put-up billboard (Crane, pp. 60-77) of their mighty burgers showing the picture of the burger as huge, juicy and mouth-watering as possible, but when people actually purchase the burgers, they were much smaller than they were expected to be. One type of unethical advertising is very commonly in utilization that is when two products are brought in comparison, and one, which is being advertised for, is claimed to be better than the one against it. Even though the name of the competing product shown in the advertisement is censored, but the product can be easily made out by its design and packaging colors etc. Projecting own company’s product to be better than the other company’s’ product by running down the competing product is surely unethical and must be prohibited (Everson, pp. 49-54). The advantages of one’s company should definitely be highlighted but this should not be done while highlighting the disadvantages of another company’s competing products. Furthermore, one type of unethical advertising is advertisements, designed using women, and men in inappropriate clothing and positions. This kind of advertising is definitely unethical, as it gives out a negative message to children, and children who might see such practices in advertisements may think that this is the trend or is a good practice and might start following it. Thus, designing such advertisements is unethical (Furrow, pp. 49-53). In addition, advertisements often attack their competitors by highlighting and bringing to notice the negative points of the competitors’ products rather than highlighting the advantage of the product. Experts have indicated such as negative advertising and it is unethical, and thus, companies must avoid using such advertisements as they may result in bad image of the company in public. In addition, conservatives (Graydon, pp. 79-84) often consider advertising for products like condoms as unethical as it may promote the practice of prostitution, or promiscuity. On the other hand, few groups of people identify these advertisements as providing awareness to the public, and thus, ethical. In response, opponents argue that underage children exposed to such an advertisement may get wrong ideas from it, and they may think that using such products is good for them and is encouraged by the society. Moreover, such advertisements may give a misunderstanding in against the actual purpose of the advertisement, and thus, they may use the product for negative purposes and due to this reason, advertising for such a product is unethical. Furthermore, advertisements that offend or harm the ethical or religious values and beliefs of any race, culture, or religion fall under the category of unethical advertisements as well. For instance, advertising for designer clothes for a Christian festival while talking against a Hindu festival in the same advertisement may put the advertisement as unethical as it will offend the beliefs of another religion, and therefore, such advertisements are unethical and steps should be taken to prohibit such advertising. Moreover, it is an observation that various advertisements do not consider many social issues (Kelley, pp. 63-69). For instance, advertising a product prepared by using trees that are cut down would be unethical, as it will be promoting cutting down of trees, not in the benefit of environment and public. Similarly, even advertising for a site for building a factory in a residential area would be unethical, as it will not be in the general interest of the residents of the area and other people. In addition, advertisements that do display indecent images according to the accepted standards of decency, and provide dishonest statements are surely unethical. For example, advertising for products such as condoms while displaying the image of a couple having sex, would be unethical, as it would not be complying with the generally accepted standards of decency. Such advertisements are definitely unethical. Additionally, advertisements for products such as medicines should contain the proper ingredients and true composition of chemicals. False information regarding the ingredients used in the drugs place the unethical tag on the advertisements. Advertisements where such practices are used are surely unethical. Unethical advertisements are also those, in which violence and violent acts are displayed, and similar behavior is encouraged to promote the products or services. For instance, an advertisement for a gun where a teenager is shooting someone would be unethical as it will be promoting violence while displaying violence in the advertisement itself (Kelley, pp. 71-78). Additionally, in advertisements, there should be truthful presentation of statistics and numerical figures, and there should be no alterations in order to exaggerate them. A cigarette that causes 80% damage to the lungs comes in the advertisement as 30% and the figures and facts incline customers to buy the product by depicting that the product causes lesser harm. A very common practice carried out in advertisements currently is product endorsements. Celebrities have now become a common part of advertisements as endorsing the products, such as shampoo or soap etc has now become a common practice even when celebrities would have never even tried the product (Dawson, pp. 40-48). Such practice in advertising industry is very unethical as customer end up trusting on the celebrity, buy the product, and sometimes confront worst consequences. Thus, advertisements, in which the celebrities say that they are using the product when they are actually not doing so is unethical, and should not be allowed. Furthermore, an advertisement in which another company’s logo or name etc is under utilization, in order to gain the advantages of the firm goodwill, is unethical. Moreover, it is an acceptance that advertisements that depict dangerous stunts and show disregard for safety should not come under display as it gives out a negative message to those who watch advertisements, and thus, it is surely unethical. Additionally, such advertisements indirectly go against the law by displaying irresponsible behavior. Furthermore, in case of matchsticks that can light fire extremely easily (Dawson, pp. 50-56), advertisements often show a person burning down a forest with the help of one matchstick that is an extremely unethical practice, as it encourages violent and anti-environmental behavior in the public, and in other words, it gives out a negative message of destroying the natural environment. This practice is not very common, but many advertisements use such strategies and methodologies, which is unethical. A major concern in advertisements is the information provided in it. The information provided should not come with wrong wording, and with improper placing, as it causes misunderstanding for the reader or viewer in return (Coe, pp. 81-88). The advertisements designed should be as clear and easy to understand as possible, and be truthful as well. In this regard, advertisements that do not comply with these rules are unethical, and should thus confront, bans. Moreover, the advertisements should not mislead the viewers, especially children, and depict size, performance etc of the product, different from what the facts actually are. Another major example of unethical advertisements is those in which a person’s image or name is mentioned without their prior permission being taken. Without consent, using the name or reference etc would be illegal, as well as unethical in advertising. Lastly, many types of online advertisements are nowadays coming from unethical practices. Advertisements that lead person surfing on the net or using a specific search engine to search for a site, and make a person go on clicking and lead them from one page to another, where at the end, nude pictures of women and men are displayed with inappropriate messages (Stark, pp. 49-58). This type of advertising is also unethical, as it displays inappropriate messages and pictures to people and even underage children. There are obviously many different viewpoints on the ethics of advertising, and many people may claim that all types of advertising discussed in the paper are ethical and right, one of the reasons that advertising industry is taking advantage of pluralism and diversity in the advertising industry due to usage of symbols in the advertisements that make them vulnerable. In this regard, all advertisements prepared should undergo a proper system of screening, in which experts and culturally learned people should check content while evaluating fulfillment of legal and cultural requirements according to the society. In addition, experts should put efforts to create a general code for advertisements, in order to avoid unethical characteristics in the advertisements. References Coe, John. The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. Crane, Andrew. 2007. Business Ethics. Oxford University Press, USA. Dawson, Michael. The Consumer Trap. University of Illinois Press, 2003. Everson, Stephen. 1998. Ethics. Cambridge University Press. Furrow, Dwight. 2005. Ethics. Continuum International Publishing Group. Graydon, Shari. Made you look: how advertising works and why you should know. Annick Press, 2003. Kelley, Larry D. Advertising media planning: a brand management approach. M.E. Sharpe, 2004. MacRury, Iain. Advertising. Routledge, 2009. Petley, Julian. Advertising. Black Rabbit Books, 2003. Stark, John. Product Life Cycle Management. Birkhauser, 2004. Wells, William. Advertising: principles & practice. Prentice Hall, 2003. Read More