Balanced Business: Ethics in Advertising
By Michael at 8:21 AM on December 27, 2009
Image by bisgovuk via Flickr
Marketers, advertisers, and business owners are constantly trying to dream up new ways to get the word out about their products and convince consumers that their products are the only products which fulfill a want or need. No matter what industry, this is the constant struggle. Whether successful or unsuccessful, there have been extreme measures taken I would like to discuss today. Some measures are okay, while others are completely immoral, unethical, or even illegal.
Sex in Advertising
Anybody over the age of three knows: sex sells. And because of its potential power, many advertising agencies turn to it for selling anything from beer and cigarettes to Swiffer and Febreze. Shampoo and deodorant have little to do with sex (at least, as far as I know), so I fail to see the connection when watching Herbal Essences or Axe commercials (As many know, I have many other things against Axe).
Do you think it is appropriate to use sex in advertising, considering who has the potential to see it and be harmed by it? If a company is so desperate to sell their products that they turn to this form of advertising, do you stop using it, or do you go out of your way to fund more nonsense just from the immense sympathy and pity you have?
Ethics: Cigarettes and Booze
Many people watch the Superbowl every year, meaning hundreds of millions of people around the world are staring at a pair of breasts trying to sell them on Budweiser. Cigarettes have many limitations, and there are very few advertisements for tobacco since laws were passed against certain things a decade ago. Unfortunately, alcohol is still known and advertised as a fun product to be consumed at every party. Their only limitation is to say, “Please drink responsibly,” while showing irresponsible commercials. Children are exposed to this every day across the country, leading them to becoming careless and irresponsible adults. While we cannot solely blame advertisements – surely, parents are to blame, as well – we can hold this behavior against them.
Should alcohol companies be allowed to air commercials? How much exposure is too much?
Marketing and Pedophilia
In a business class, I once watched a video on marketers and how they are targeting children, attempting to turn them into consumers and transform them from agreeable and satisfied to needy. One such practice was to watch small children in the bathtub in order to see how they interact and respond to bubbles, so that they could make more realistic commercials. A psychologist explained there is only a small difference between this behavior of marketing and pedophilia. Marketers try to sell a product, while pedophiles try to sell themselves.
Is this even close to being ethical? Why is this not illegal? Is it because the politicians also need to target children with their political campaigns?
Is it even remotely appropriate to have such things in our society? What do you think? How far would you go to sell a product?
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Jimmy from 
Hi:
Thank you for your honesty here.
How far would I go to sell a product?
Well, evidently not far enough, and I cannot see myself using sleazy techniques to sell my products.
I know that many of my competitors are relativist thinkers. They have been taught at college that morals are what you define them as, since there are no laws outside of self that are absolute.
I am not so sure. The laws of physics must be obeyed whether we want thme or not. And, I think there are a set of moral laws in that same category. Inconvenient at times, perhaps. But, there anyway.
Just as personal information.
I am a simple cabinet maker who would love to just be able to put my material on the web so the public could see my work.
I have spent five years doing nothing but refining my design and bench skills.
But, during that time, it seems others have been thinking about how to use the net to do who knows what. I don’t understand what they are saying.
Anyway, I would just like to find a place where someone would start with step one and just show me how to do some simple web site that makes sense for my business.
Right now, I know where the on button is (I guess that’s a switch) for my computer, and that’s about it.