Ethics in Advertising - CA00009

8/3/2019 Ethics in Advertising - CA00009

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Ethics in Advertising

Armeen Qayoom

100110


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Some quotes to start us off:

Advertising is the lubricant of the free-enterprise system(Kelmenson in McKenna, 1983, p11)

Advertising is essential to the look and feel of modern

societiesIn their images and phrases, these advertisements give

public form to changing social desires, moods and ideals: they arethe official art or modern capitalist society (Williams, in

Sinclair, 1997, p267)

Salesmanship, advertising, the telephoneare all really just

ways of mediating human interactionthese and most other

mediahave turned into avenues of behaviour and thoughtcontrolThe art of manipulation has becomeprevalentWe are

living through end-stage propaganda, a culture which has beensubjected to so muchprogramming that it exhibits pathologicalsymptoms (Rushkoff, 1999, pp25-26)

Advertising is legalised lying (Wells in Jackman, 1982, p2)


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Some ad text groundwork:

Id like us all to recognise that:

ads are texts just like novels or films (but texts

that have promotional intent) ads are public texts that circulate freely (but

they have preferred readings, and thatpreference is commercial)

as a first principal all these texts in circulationin a free society should be subject to the

ethical scrutiny of its citizens


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Some ad text groundwork:

Id like us to also consider the ethics of advertising in threeranges, So we might consider:

Micro range. This deals with the everyday issues ofproblematic advertisements that interact with the broad

sweep of changing individual moral norms Mid range. Here we enter the area that Elspeth Probyn and

Catherine Lumby cover in this weeks reading. They call itboundary blurring and it has to do with our increasinginability to distinguish between ads and non ads in media

content Macro. This final area deals with the biggest issues, the

notion of a mental landscape, our imagination effectively,completely colonised, at both an individual and a collectivelevel by promotional rhetoric


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Some ethical frameworkrevision

1) Teleological philosophies determine the moral worthof a behaviour by its consequences or end point. Twocommon teleological theories are egoism, in whichindividuals focus only on the consequences tothemselves when evaluating an ethical situation, andutilitarianism, where the consequences of an ethicalsituation to the whole of society are more important thanthe consequences to an individual (the good of the manyoutweighs the good of the one)

2) Aretaic or virtue philosophies, where it is the actorthat is important, not necessarily the outcome. In virtueethics a good person has personal qualities such as

courage, wisdom, loyalty and fairness. These virtuesshould be used in balance between extremes of

possible conduct (This is the golden mean)


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Some ethical frameworkrevision

3) Deontological philosophies on the other handemphasises the act. Duty ethics posit an ethics notbased on fuzzy ideas of individual virtue, but on theidea that some things are universally right or wrong

and that these laws should compel us to do theright thing because it becomes our duty to do so.Kant is at the extreme end of Duty ethics, Rosspluralistic theory of value is less so because itallows multiple duties

4) Relativist philosophies would have us believethat no universal ethical rules can exist that apply toeveryone in every situation because all beliefs areculturally generated - not timeless and handed to usfrom above


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Some of the most persistent micro& midrange criticisms of

advertising ethics include: That it takes advantage of innocent and defenceless

children - either by utilising the pester power effect tocontrol purchases through their parents, or by marketing

goods and services to children considered by many to be toyoung to either understand the persuasive intent of the ador too young to actually need the good or service (i.e. theselling of cosmetics or high end lingerie to young girls)

That it uses sex to sell, more specifically that it reduces

women (and increasingly men) to sex objects

That it uses shock (cruelty, violence, disgust, pornography

etc etc) to sell = Benetton. i.e. it trivialises very seriousaspects of the human condition


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Some of the most persistentmicro & midrange criticisms of

advertising include: That it promotes unhealthy and unrealistic body image

expectations in young women and young men, and theidea that the solution to these problems can be found

in the marketplace

That it sells and glamorises harmful (but legal)substances like alcohol, tobacco, and certain lifestyle

drugs - and encourages/normalises unhealthy eating

habits

That it is reactive, rather than proactive, in its depictionof racial/ethnic/religious/gender and age stereotypes.For instance - how many Aboriginal faces or aged

people are there in Australian advertising?


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Some of the most persistentmicro & midrange criticisms of

advertising include:

That it commodifies aspects of life that should be part ofa persons basic human rights (i.e. the right to medical

treatment gets replaced by luxury private health cover)

That, particularly in the age of the internet and the mobilephone, it invades peoples privacy by collecting data

about them without their knowledge or express consent

That in the age of convergence, advertisers areincreasingly hiding their persuasive message behind a

mask of journalism or celebrity (i.e. Advertorials, cash

for comment), or entertainment (magalogs, infomercials,product placement), or just mediums that are considered

to be part of the realm of everyday speech (blog-ads)


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Some of the most persistentcriticisms of the ad industry as a

whole include: That it is designed to be deceptive, and moreover,

that it less and less serves to inform us believablyabout logical basic product information such as

price, place and performance (is fat free really fatfree?), and inserts emotionality - dreams, hopes,fears in their place (be what you want to be)

That it dumbs down civil discourse by

transforming complex issues (like politics and theenvironmental crisis) into celebrity contests andgreenwash respectively

That it sets up a regime of success, luxury anddesire that poor people can see but never attain


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Some of the most persistentcriticisms of the ad industry as a

whole include: That it is not subject to enough government regulation

and that the industrys attempt to self regulate is a self-contradictory joke

That it disguises human suffering and inequality behindits brilliant disguise (i.e. exploitation of coffee workers)

That the political/economic thrust of the industry is to

dismantle public limits to unregulated promotionality (bylobbying to weaken legislative restrictions on ads) andreplace them with individual/ familial self regulation (i.e.

to discipline the parent into feeling that they alone areresponsible for supervising their childs ad exposure

and that if they fail to do that they are bad parents)


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At a simple level of deception, Davis(1994, p381) lists four types of

practises that all promotional textscould be accused of to some extent:

Puffery - use of hyperbole or unbelievable exaggeration

Use of generalisations about products where specific detailsare required, leading to false expectations about utility

Use of qualifiers and vague quantifiers

Use of small or fleeting fine print, or ads that dont include

crucial information

And I will add another, overriding ethical objection:

Advertising too often doesnt respect people as fully

developed individuals and citizens with goals beyond theimmediate purchase


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One final observation:

In a digital, interactive world of: viral messages spread voluntarily by users,

of micro-targeted SMS campaigns,

of multiple product placements in reality TV shows that are

themselves ads for the contestants, and where individuals can increasingly advertise

themselves online via blogs

What is persuasion, what is deception, what is

truth, and how do we hold people to it???Remember - advertising industry workers are customers too!

Dilemmas faced by advertising professionals potentially

impact on their own children!


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Example case study issues


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And now for somethingcompletely different:

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&

story=4
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20081013_2120&story=4


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Micro case study 1 - Shock and fear inadvertising

Micro case study 2 - Advertising tochildrenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJMdXM5oIk

Micro case study 3 - Greenwash

Mid-macro case study 1 - canadvertising disguise exploitation?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhVNZt1aOc8

Mid-macro case study 2 - Boundaryblurring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJMdXM5oIkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhVNZt1aOc8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhVNZt1aOc8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJMdXM5oIk


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A Micro-mid Conclusion:

How do we proceed from here at thepractical level of individual ad texts and theindustries that create, sell and are funded bythem? Patterson and Wilkins mention Baker

and Martinsons TARES test, which hasbecome an influential tool in the study ofadvertising ethics

In the tutes it would be useful to look at this

test and evaluate its usefulness, perhapstest it against some real world ads, and

consider whether adherence to this test is a

realistic expectation in the harsh light of

coalface industry


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And a Macro Question:

At the macro level the question is whethermarketers should have access to every corner ofthe media and every corner of our creative brainspace - is the world really, as Douglas Rushkoff

has stated, now just made of marketing?

There isan increasingly desperate need topreserve a space for other forms of thinking, othershades of feeling and other ways of being in theworld (p148) so conditioned are we to expect

advertising and almost no other form of address in ourpublic spaces that we naturally assume that a printed,mass produced image must be there to sell ussomething (Poyner, R, p180)


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Conclusions?

Are there absolute standards of right andwrong that individuals, advertising industryprofessionals and societies should adhereto?

Does the pleasure produced by advertsoutweigh the damage they cause?

Or is it all a relativist free for all where the

viewer/buyer beware holds true

Where do virtue ethics notions like

obligation, responsibility, accountability andexcellence of character come into this?


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Conclusions?

Are there special interest groups of

especially vulnerable people out therethat deserve ethical (and legal)

protection form this marketing free

for all?

If so, who are they and why?


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Conclusions?

Does self regulation by advertising peakbodies (as seen in the AFA and AANACodes of Ethics, which I have put up on theCI&E website) work?

Can we trust for profit organisations thatanswer to shareholders first to behaveresponsibly?

What kind of legislation would you pass tolegally oversee ad standards, or would youtake a hands off approach and let theindustry self regulate?


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Conclusions?

Is the ethical crux of a potentiallycontroversial admaking decision today -especially in a digital, interactive, boundary

blurring world where it is increasingly hardto tell what is and isnt an ad- seated withthe actor, the act, the outcome, the rules,

or is it just all relative?

Is any publicity good publicity? Have YOUever been shocked or disgusted orsaddened by an ad enough to want itchanged, restricted or banned? What wasthe ad?


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Why TARES?

Whereas professional persuasion is a means to

an immediate and instrumental end (such asincreased sales or enhanced corporate image),

ethical persuasion must rest on or serve a deeper,morally based final (or relative last) end. Amongthe moral final ends of journalism, for example, aretruth and freedom

There is a very real danger that advertisers and

public relations practitioners will play anincreasingly dysfunctional role in thecommunications process if means continue to beconfused with ends in professional persuasivecommunications. (Baker & Martinson, 2001)


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Ethical Questions Derived from the

5 point TARES test(adapted from Lieber 2003) TRUTHFULNESS (of the message)

1. The accuracy of the content 2. Whether the communicators own honesty and integrity may be

questioned as a result of this communication decision 3. Whether the communicator would feeldeceived if this communication was related to him/her in the same context.

AUTHENTICITY (of the persuader)

1. That the communicator would personally advocate the view he/she is presenting 2. People

receiving the information will benefit from it 3. That the communicator would openly assumepersonal responsibility for the communication.

RESPECT (for the persuadee)

1. That the target audience is viewed by the communicator with respect 2. Self-interest is beingpromoted at the expense of those being persuaded.

EQUITY (of the appeal)

1. Whether the target audience was unfairly selected due to their vulnerability to the content 2.The context of the communication is fair 3. The target audience can completely understand theinformation being presented to them.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (for the common good)

1. The view being advocated might cause harm to individuals or society 2. That the content of thecommunication promoted the principles the communicator personally believes in 3. Certain

groups might be unfairly stereotyped by this communication

Documents

Ethics in Advertising - CA00009