Advertising Ethics

The rise of social media and the impact of the digital evolution on business are attracting global attention to a previously little known practice in advertising: rogue or “scam” ads. Rogue ads are typically unapproved, limited placement, or limited run ads. The majority of rogue ads are highly offensive, culturally insensitive, discriminatory and/or inflammatory. Advertising professionals create rogue ads after misappropriating client brands and intellectual property, in hope of individual recognition at industry award competitions. Several U.S. companies, including Hanesbrands, Inc., Unilever and Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut, have been “victims” of rogue ads. The 2013 Ford Figo ad scandal, and the increase in award competitions for rogue ads, such as the Chip Shop Awards, signals a continued industry acceptance of the practice of rogue ad creation.

This paper examines different types of rogue ads, focusing on recent examples of unapproved ads. Current conflicting attitudes reveal an ethical divide in the industry: some advertising professionals condone the practice as harmless or “proactive” creativity, while others condemn the practice as damaging to the profession, agencies, award organizations and clients. Legal, ethical, and social issues, raised relative to contracts, intellectual property, reputational damages, corporate social responsibility, industry self-regulation, and misappropriation/theft,  are identified and discussed. Recommendations include calls for: industry associations and agencies to condemn rogue ads by updating principles/standards of practice; award organizations to strengthen submission policies; ad agencies to strengthen corporate governance procedures with “top down” policies of zero-tolerance for rogue ads and rogue creatives; and reminders for client companies to strengthen contracts in order to protect their interests.

Araştırmanın amacı; televizyon reklamlarında algılanan etiksel faktörleri belirlemek ve demografik özelliklerine göre katılımcıların etiksel faktörleri algılamalarında farklılık olup olmadığını tespit etmektir. Bu amaçla, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli (HBV) ve Niğde Üniversitelerinde çalışan 460 personele yönelik bir araştırma yapılmıştır.  Elde edilen veriler SPSS 22.0 hazır paket programında değerlendirilmiştir. Verilerin değerlendirilmesinde faktör analizi, manova analizi ve bazı tanımlayıcı istatistiklerden faydalanılmıştır. Araştırmadan elde edilen başlıca bulgular şu şekilde sıralanabilir: Faktör analizine göre reklamda etik algılamalar ile ilgili erkek, kadın ve çocuk manipülasyonu, sosyal ve dil, aldatma ve yanıltma ve aşırı tüketim ve seçim hakkı faktörleri saptanmıştır. Gelir durumu ve çalıştıkları üniversite değişkenlerine göre katılımcıların algıladıkları etik faktörler farklılaşmaktadır. Kısaca, alt ve üst gelir grupları ve Nevsehir HBV üniversitesi çalışanları reklamlara çok daha eleştirel yaklaşmaktadırlar. Ayrıca reklam etiğiyle ilgili katılımcıların en çok algıladıkları sorun, reklamların çocuklara yönelik olumsuz etki oluşturmasıdır.

The use of humor in advertisements has been the subject of numerous studies, most of which have emphasized humor's effectiveness while neglecting the ethical issues that it often poses when used in advertising. In response, in the present study we look at the extent to which humor masks the ethical concerns inherent in offensive advertising. We examine advertisements brought before the Austrian Advertising Council, as well as the case-specific decisions made by councilors. With our analysis, we contribute to advertising ethics by turning attention to an important organization in the practice of critiquing advertisements.

Several studies have found that Muslims have different attitudes towards advertising compared to people of other faiths, which makes Muslims an especially interesting group of consumers to study. This research attempts to contribute to the understanding of Islamic advertising by investigating ethical advertising from the eyes of Indonesian Muslim consumers. More specifically, this study investigates whether there are differing ethical perceptions of advertisements between Indonesian Muslims of different age, gender, ethnicity, and levels of religiosity. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and independent sample t-test were used to compare the varying perceptions of the respondents towards the Islamic ethical advertising elements.

Resumen: Los mensajes publicitarios son persuasivos. La presencia de estereotipos de género en los que se dirigen a los menores puede influir decisivamente en su proceso de socialización. Por ello, este trabajo se centra en la estrategia seguida en Facebook por los principales anunciantes del sector de juguetes en España durante la campaña de Navidad 2014-2015. Se analiza el objetivo del mensaje, el género de los menores, la presencia de adultos, la voz en off y el tipo de acción. Los datos obtenidos se comparan con los estudios precedentes, que se han limitado a analizar los mensajes en televisión y otros medios offline. Los resultados muestran una menor presencia de estereotipos y que las marcas han cambiado su estrategia, para adaptarla a la naturaleza de las redes sociales. Abstract: Advertisements are persuasive communications. The presence of gender stereotypes in those of them addressed to children can significantly influence their socialization process. Thus, this research focuses on the main companies of toy industry in Spain and on the strategy they followed in Facebook during 2014-2015 Christmas campaign. We analyze the objective of messages, the gender of children, the presence of adults, the use of voices, and the kind of interaction. We compare the data we obtain with some previous research, referred to television and offline media. The results show that there are less gender stereotypes and that brands have changed their strategies, because of the nature of social networking sites. Los menores frente a los estereotipos en la publicidad El elemento persuasivo forma parte de la naturaleza misma del mensaje publicitario, que busca entre otras cosas mostrar al consumidor potencial las características de un producto o servicio concreto, poniendo el énfasis en el elemento diferenciador que puede resultar decisivo para que lo elija y lo adquiera frente a los de la competencia. La publicidad se constituye de ese modo en una de las formas de comunicación más poderosas que existen y puede influir de manera directa en las actitudes, las expectativas, las orientaciones culturales, los comportamientos y, por supuesto, los deseos de compra de las personas (Kahlenberg y Hein, 2010).

In his book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert Pirsig introduced the idea of Cartesian Anxiety as an obstacle to developing Quality solutions. Cartesian Anxiety occurs when the number of options to resolve a rich and complex problem is artificially reduced to just two, even though many other options may exist. This artificial constraint prevents individuals from generating new choices and from recognizing the opportunities for viewing complex problems in creative ways. The question presented to this panel is a Cartesian Anxiety problem. Whether Marketing Ethics should be taught as a standalone course or integrated throughout the curriculum ignores the many other ways that universities and colleges are exposing students to ethics issues. The purpose of this brief paper is to review the previous research on this question and address some of the considerations of panel members as to whether ethics should be taught across the curriculum.