At the heart and soul of advertising, public relations, and marketing is the sales objective. These institutions stand to sell products and services to consumerist markets on behalf of larger corporations and smaller businesses. For advertising and public relations, the tactics used to sell these products and services to consumers is use of clever manipulation, the utilization of spin, and creative persuasion in advertisements, video/news releases, and marketing campaigns. While the use of these tools greatly benefits the businesses behind these movement it remains to be seen whether advertising and public relations serves corporate interest or citizen interest. Thus the discussion of what constitutes ethical behavior in advertising and public relations fuels a clash between corporations and consumers.
With any story, there’s two sides of the coin. On one side, advertising and public relations have become an integral function of our consumerist economy because it provides information to consumers regarding the products and services that attract them. In addition, advertising and PR generates competition between businesses which fuels the economy, causes growth, and benefits consumers. On the opposite side, advertising and PR can be seen as the manipulative corporate hand in the public sphere that uses aggressive sales tactics, false claims, and clouded perceptions to serve their own self-interests which in turn fragments consumers. Both sides could be argued for, but it’s up to organizations like the FTC and the IAE to guide the advertising and PR industries down an ethical path that leads to the benefit of consumers rather than as the force of manipulation. An interview with the IAE, the president of Global Advertising and Strat...
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... consumers and give advertisers an edge on reaching their target audience while segmenting markets. This raises a high-caliber ethical debate because this can be seen as infringement of personal privacy. In terms of ethics and morality, the internet is a wild frontier and it is up to society to deem what constitutes freedom of speech and where the code of ethics is placed.
Works Cited
Castillo, M. (2013, July 10). Artificial sweeteners could lead to obesity, diabetes. In CBS NEWS. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-could-lead-to-obesity-diabetes/
Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie. (2004, 12 03). Splenda sugar sweetener spat. CBS NEWS. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/splenda-sugar-sweetener-spat/
Snyder, W. S. (2011). Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics. Institute for Advertising Ethics, 1-11.
Michael R. Hyman; Richard Tansey; James W. Clark (1994). Research on Advertising Ethics: Past, Present, and Future: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Ethics in Advertising pp. 5-15.: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Still, the matter of constitutional freedom of speech as applied to advertising has raised serious questions concerning control of sex and decency in advertising. Swedish courts, for example, have not sustained some initiatives of the Consumer Ombudsman in this matter; and the Swedish Parliament sta...
... in food in the cafeteria lead to clogging the arteries that eventually lead to heart diseases (Ardis). Nevertheless, artificial sweeteners have not been tested in humans and show kids they are healthier, rather than real sugar and real sweeteners, when in reality they contain ingredients that can cause cancer.
When it comes to marketing the line between what is ethical and what is not can easily be blurred. Advertisers have to walk a fine line between promoting their product and providing misleading
Artificial sweeteners have become a vital part of the sugar industry and are marketed as zero-calorie sugars that can cause no harm to the body, but do they truly cause no harm? Although these sweeteners do not directly cause health problems they do have very strong connections to the development of diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and misconceptions about weight loss.
Although the examples here were few, classical ethical theories can be applied in every advertising situation. For advertisers, it is important to understand these theories in order to make informed and ethical decisions when communicating with your audience. Ethics don’t always give answers to moral problems and different ethical theories may apply to different advertising situations, but if advertisers use ethical practices, they can deliver their messages to society with more discretion.
(The Human Touch of Chemistry)There are no carbohydrates in artificial sweeteners. This links to diabetic benefits as artificial sweeteners create a less strict diet for peoples with diabetes who have to control their blood sugar levels. On the other hand the main disadvantage to having artificial sweeteners is the fact that it has a lack of nutritional value. For this reason it is recommended that people stay away from these kinds of sweeteners.
In modern business world, ethical issues in the management has become one of the most vital aspects of the well-being of the business. Ethics means the conducts that entail the running of an enterprise. In marketing, this ethics is paramount since they enhance honesty, fairness in regards to the responsibility that a person is entitled. Some of this ethics include standard truth across the board that involves transparency, customer fairness, consumer privacy. It should be practiced and the regulation that regards to marketing of the personnel (Murphy, 2005).
Advertisers and corporations are liable for using modern and sophisticated forms of mind control to the extent level of brainwashing consumers, in order to manipulate their choices and their spending habits. Our society is being negatively impacted, by becoming a consumer driven society constantly distracted by overwhelming persuasive advertisements, as opposed to ideal informative advertisements. The most vulnerable and negatively impacted targets of persuasive advertising are the younger, less mature, and/or less knowledgeable and self-directed consumers. Ironically, it was once said “An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15% commission” (Allen). It is quite clear that social benefits are not part of this equation. The harm and severe social related costs far outweigh any economic growth and benefits deemed necessary for advertising and marketing companies.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
We are currently in an era where the profession of public relations is widely viewed as being “spin doctors” and hype can often eclipse reality. Most individuals see public relations as people who manipulate the public mind, rather than tell the truth. We are often accused of distorting reality, propaganda and withholding information. With these circumstances, you could have thought that “ethical public relations” was an oxymoron. Although not everyone is in tune with today’s public relation’s world, it is critical to assert a practitioners' beliefs of ethics in the practice of public relations. Being an ethical public relations practitioner is fundamental, especially when it is your duty to build trust and enhance stakeholders’ reputations.
In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.
In 1994, a new form of advertising and getting products and services into the world was discovered: the internet. Online advertising has been growing rapidly. We can see advertisements on almost any webpage we go to. Even if you try to avoid ads, you are bound to find some. This leads us to a crucial part of advertising which is ethics.
Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.
Some advertising messages most times brings ethical issues especially when it comes to international marketing. Due to cultural and language differences between different countries, regions and areas in the world, a single marketing messages will not work because of this global difference, therefore marketers needs to be aware of these differences before launching any form a marketing communications. Lots of marketer engage in unethical marketing strategies and tactics just to gain an unfair advantage over other businesses in same industry by intentionally exalting their products with words that are not true concerning the products putting their own higher at the detriment of competing