{"id":95,"date":"2023-08-03T10:26:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T14:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/cebe\/chapter\/__unknown__-22\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T12:13:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T16:13:23","slug":"ethics-in-advertising","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/cebe\/chapter\/ethics-in-advertising\/","title":{"raw":"Ethics in Advertising","rendered":"Ethics in Advertising"},"content":{"raw":"

Ethics in advertising<\/strong> considers the range of questions related to right and wrong\u00a0 regarding the advertising of products or services, or the people who perform that business function.<\/p>\r\n

The central ethical issue with regard to advertising is honesty, and the avoidance of deception.\u00a0Deceptive advertising\u00a0is problematic for several reasons. First, it may do harm if it results in people buying something that either harms them or doesn\u2019t actually meet their needs. Second, deception is often wrong because it constitutes a form of manipulation, and hence fails to respect customers as persons. Finally, deceptive advertising undermines the efficiency of markets by making it harder to match products and resources with people and their goals.<\/p>\r\n

Closely related to the question of honesty in advertising are questions related to\u00a0advertisements that are not literally false, but potentially misleading. One such concern has to do with ads that portray products in a way that may tend to inflate consumer expectations in a way that leads to bad purchase decisions. For example, a car ad showing a mid-sized sedan being driven like a race car may wrongly suggest to potential customers that they too will be able to drive that way, especially if they don\u2019t know that the car in the ad was being driven by a professional driver under carefully controlled conditions.<\/p>\r\nAnother key ethical concern has to do with advertising aimed at vulnerable populations such as children or the elderly. Very young children often cannot reliably tell fantasy from reality. An adult viewing an ad that shows a bicycle flying through the air will typically know that this is merely an attempt by the advertiser to grab their attention. A child, on the other hand, may genuinely be misled about what that bicycle can do.\r\n

Some commercial advertisements focus not on promoting a product, but on promoting a brand or the company that owns the brand. In this regard, there is sometimes a concern regarding advertising that, while technically accurate, provides a very incomplete portrayal of a company\u2019s overall performance. When this takes the form of highlighting environmentally-friendly products and other \u2018green\u2019 achievements\u00a0in order\u00a0to distract from a weak overall environmental track record, it is known as \u201cgreenwashing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Critics of capitalism sometimes argue that, under a capitalist system, the role of advertising is actually to create in people \u201cneeds\u201d and desires they did not formerly have. In this way, it is said, advertisement promotes consumption in a way that is unhealthy for society, but necessary for capitalism as a system.<\/p>\r\n

Finally, questions also arise\u00a0as to whether there are some products and services that simply should not be advertised, even if they may be legally sold. The advertising of certain\u00a0products and services is restricted by law in some jurisdictions.\u00a0For example, the advertising of cigarettes and alcohol are both severely restricted in many jurisdictions.<\/p>\r\n

Further Reading<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n