Ethics in Advertisting

Ethics in Advertising
In the century of advertising industry, we are “attacked” by a large range of commercial messages which exists everyday everywhere not only in the mass media like TV, newspapers, internets…but also in train, bus, schools…It is undoubted that we usually wonder about the reliability of those messages. In fact, a lot of companies exaggerate their pieces of advertisements to make more profits. They earn money at any cost by lying consumer and intentionally forget the concept of ethical norm and principles. In other words, companies or advertisers gradually underestimate their ethical value in advertising in general as well as in deceptive advertising in particular.
Advertising is originally known as a tool for producers to transmit information to consumers. However, its nature has changed for many recent years due to advertisers’ greed. They attempt to make their products appear in the most outstanding way to attract more and more consumers using their tricks like “The testimonial, Sex and beauty, Fears and insecurities”1. They are so intelligent enough to explore and access customer’s mind to aim at their own benefits. According to McClearn “Truth is a scarce commodity, in business as elsewhere” and advertisers are too good to tell the truth. The term “deceptive” exists to illustrate “truth” in marketing or advertising. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defines this word as “being a representation, omission, act or practice that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances. To be regulated, however, a deceptive claim must also be material”2. Take Listerine as a example, it was widely introduced to America market by Warner-Lambert Co. in 1914 and by 1975, FTC forced this company to pay $ 10 million for false advertising since its product was useless to cure sore throats3. Consumers were treated as idiots for many years, using Listerine with erroneous belief of its ability to treat colds and sore throats. This is totally unfair for them. In this case, deceptive advertising can cause harmlessness to people; yet, making money by lying other people might be considered as an unethical dilemma.
The hidden sides of advertising leave ethical question for companies themselves and impact children and young people negatively. Every single day children may encounter a hundred of tempting messages and lack experiences, awareness to realize which is good or bad for them. Global issue website indicates that when the average number of the US children watch between 25,000 and 40,000 commercial channels each year, advertisers spend around $15-17billion for them. Their marketing campaign seems to work effectively since America teenagers and children (up to 11) spend nearly $ 160 and $18 billion per year respectively. Children (under 12) and teens also influence their parent’s purchase decision making over $130-670 billion4. These figures show that child-based advertising is the potential market in the future. The main purpose of advertisers is making more and more money; they don’t care what they do whether leaves serious consequences on forming children’s personality and morality or not; as Dr. Alan Kanner, said “Advertising is a massive, multi-million dollar project that 's having an enormous impact on child development” 5. He is also strongly against cooperation between psychologist and advertiser simply because the information given by the psychologist is more commercial than beneficial for children. McDonalds is a case in point. On its website, we find it easy to recognize McDonald’s big concerns more on nutritious ingredients, child’s health like “You want the best for your kids and so do we” or “We’ve put a lot of thought into creating a meal that’s just perfect size for those in-be-tween”. Do they do exactly what they claim? At first glance, apple slices, salad, fat free milk seem to be a menu of healthy fast food alternatives. Nevertheless, a crispy chicken added to a “Mighty Kids Meal” obtains 450 calories and 25 grams fat (McDonalds Nutrition fact) apart from the amount of fat in fried potatoes. Therefore, this option for kids is not really healthy. More seriously, McDonalds have to face huge issue of “high sodium content” in their foods (Mike Adam 2010). In 2011, the CLRA (The Consumers Legal Remedies Act) accused McDonalds of deceptive advertising practices to children by offering “toy” together with “Happy meal”. They make full use of kid’s interests (cartoon character, colorful picture, superman…) to encourage them to buy more and more. We all know that eating excess amount of fast food or junk food containing a lot of fat, calories, carbohydrates.etc.. will lead to obesity, heart deceases, diabetes.
Another striking example to clarify this study is advertising in alcohol. Evidence shows that 50% of 12-14 year-old drinkers, 65% of 15-17 year-old drinkers and 72% of 18-20 year-old drinkers experience at least one binge drinking in the past month while only 43% of adult mention that6. The increasing in amount of young people (under 21 years old) drinking alcohol is at an alarming rate in modern society even though drinking underage is an illegal action. In addition, most alcohol advertisements are usually described as a variety of themes; those imply that teens can go to bar to relax to drink a little beer or beer makes it easy to make friends (Grube 1994). This means drinking underage is acceptable and should be encouraged through advertisers’ messages. Besides, advertisers are attempting to draw alcohol consumers’ attention to their brands, rather than persuade non-users or children to avoid such habits (Job & Dorah 2011). Generally, consequences of drinking underage are countless and advertisers are seeking money by impairing indirectly the whole young generation. As can be seen from Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization “kids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash, high school students who use alcohol or other substances are five times more likely to drop out of school or believe good grades are not important, and kids who engage in underage drinking are more likely to be involved in alcohol related accidents”.

Many companies have proven themselves to be less and less ethical in advertising. This, more or less, has a negative impact on consumers especially children and the youth. Therefore to protect consumers’ benefits, the government should take a wise step to diminish the proportion of unfavorable advertising messages disclosing in public. Additionally, advertising for highly educational and humanistic content must be supported. As for advertisers, it’s crucial to expand their ideas more creative and ingenious so as to link morality and culture to advertising messages. More importantly, they must induce consumers to buy their products instead of manipulating them.
References:
1Kyle Stankiewicz.Top advertising tricks that make you spend money. Retrieved October 6, 2012, http://urbantitan.com/top-advertising-tricks-that-make-you-spend-money/.
McClearn, M. (2006). “Where the truth lies”. Journal of Canada business, 79(9), 23-23.
2Laura Drake. Deceptive Advertising. Viewed October 6,2012, http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingglossary/g/decaddef.htm
3Warner-Lambert Co. History. Viewed October 6, 2012, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/warner-lambert-co-history/
4Anup, S.(2010. “Children as consumers”. Retrieved October 6th 2012, from Global Issue website: http://www.globalissues.org/article/237/children-as-consumers
5Rebecca, A. (2000). “Advertising to children: Is it ethical?”. American Psychological Association, 31(8), 52-52.
Mike, Adam.(2010) .Why McDonald 's Happy Meal hamburgers won 't decompose - the real story behind the story. Retrieved October 7, 2012, http://www.naturalnews.com/030074_Happy_Meal_decompose.html

6U.S Department of Justice 2002.Drinking in America: Myths, Realities, and Prevention. http://www.udetc.org/documents/Drinking_in_America.pdf
Grube, Joel W. and Lawrence Wallack (1994). “Television Beer Advertising and Drinking Knowledge,Beliefs and Intentions Among Schoolchildren,”. American Journal of Public Health 84(2), 254 – 259.
Job, J. & Dorah, J. (2011). “Youth attitudes towards advertisements depicting nudity and alcohol: ethical dilemmas in advertising”. South African Journal of Psychology, 41(2), 207-217.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, “Statistics.”, viewed October, 7 2012, http://www.madd.org/statistics/.

References: 1Kyle Stankiewicz.Top advertising tricks that make you spend money. Retrieved October 6, 2012, http://urbantitan.com/top-advertising-tricks-that-make-you-spend-money/. McClearn, M. (2006). “Where the truth lies”. Journal of Canada business, 79(9), 23-23. 4Anup, S.(2010. “Children as consumers”. Retrieved October 6th 2012, from Global Issue website: http://www.globalissues.org/article/237/children-as-consumers 5Rebecca, A Grube, Joel W. and Lawrence Wallack (1994). “Television Beer Advertising and Drinking Knowledge,Beliefs and Intentions Among Schoolchildren,”. American Journal of Public Health 84(2), 254 – 259. Job, J. & Dorah, J. (2011). “Youth attitudes towards advertisements depicting nudity and alcohol: ethical dilemmas in advertising”