Marketing and

Advertising Ethics
 What is Advertising
O Advertising is very important to the success of
any business. However, since it is being
conducted by humans who are looking out for
their best interests, advertising can be both
helpful and harmful. In fact, the line between
ethical vs. unethical ads is often blurry.
 What is Advertising
O Advertising is often critiqued for not
respecting rules of ethics.

O The main concern of advertisement is to

increase sales, win new clients, increase
the demand for the product
 What is Ethics?
O Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is
good and bad, right or wrong and with moral
duty and obligation.

O Ethics are the moral principle that guide our

behavior and thinking. It is up to an individual
to use his/her conscience what they feel to be
right
 What is advertising ethics?
O Cunningham (1999) defined advertising ethics

as "what is right or good in the conduct of the

advertising function. It is concerned with
questions of what ought to be done, not just
with what legally must be done."
 What is advertising ethics?
O The topic of ethics in advertising has been

examined largely through commentary and

philosophical debate and from a "macro"
perspective of advertising's effects on society
rather than at the "micro" level of the firm and
practitioners working in it.
 Ethical Issues in
Advertising
O Puffery

O Stereotyping

O Advertising to Children some Controversial

products
O Gratuitous Sexual Content

O Claim to being No. 1

 What is commercial advertising?
O Distinct from personal ads, commercial advertising

evolves in high-speed and stimulating change-overs,

spark plugged by a variety of technological
sophistication. It is more than classical description of
commercial advertising as claimed by Oxenfeldt (1966)
where it is defined as the "persuasive communication
from seller to buyer on a non-personal basis."
What is commercial advertising?

O When you run a commercial ad, you are the

identified sponsor who pays for a non-personal

communication and promotion, by which visual or
oral messages are addressed to the general public or
specific target. Your purpose is to inform, to
persuade and influence them to buy the product or
services.
 What are the elements of
commercial advertising?
O It is a non-personal communication and promotion.

O Publicly addressed to a mass audience as distinct from

a personal message privately addressed to a particular

person. Because of this, advertising essentially has
global social effects.
 What are the elements of
commercial advertising?
O Paid for by some identified sponsors,

usually by business organizations.

O The purpose of which is to influence the

behavior of the buying public.

 What are the elements of
commercial advertising?

O Delivered through a paid medium.

O Communication is established through such media as

newspapers, radio, cinema, television, blimps, sports or

fashion events, billboards, direct mail, electronic
catalogue or via the internet.
What is persuasive advertising?
O Persuasive advertising aims to create a need

for the product or service. Because it is chiefly

directed to feelings and the unconscious
motivations of the consumer, persuasive
advertising tends to be emotional.
What is persuasive advertising?
O It is what advertisers refer to as "hard sell or

subliminal ads." This type of advertising (and

most ads are of this type), more or less, seeks
to bypass the reflective and intelligent powers
of the consumer.
 How important is advertising to
business?

O Advertising can become a powerful weapon in

competition.
 Thank you!
Presented by: Joan Mae C.
Balanta