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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
VII. Special Topics and
Perspectives
22. Evaluating the Social,
Ethical, & Economic
Aspects of Advtising &
Promotion
improve their standard of living. They say advertising produces jobs and helps new
firms enter the marketplace. Companies employ people who make the products and
provide the services that advertising sells. Free market economic systems are based on
competition, which revolves around information, and nothing delivers information
better and at less cost than advertising.
Not everyone, however, is sold on the value of advertising. Critics argue that most
advertising is more propaganda than information; it creates needs and faults consumers
never knew they had. Ads suggest that children won’t succeed without a computer,
that our bodies should be leaner, our faces younger, and our houses cleaner.
They point to the sultry, scantily clad bodies used in ads to sell everything from perfume
to beer to power tools and argue that advertising promotes materialism, insecurity,
and greed.
One of the reasons advertising and other forms of integrated marketing communications
are becoming increasingly criticized is because they are so prevalent. Not only
are there more magazine, newspaper, outdoor, TV, and radio ads than ever, but more
and more public space is becoming commercialized. Advertising professor David
Helm notes: “Between the stickered bananas and the ads over the urinals and the ones
on the floor of the supermarkets, we’re exposed to 3,000 commercial messages a day.
That’s one every 15 seconds, assuming we sleep for 8 hours, and I’d guess right now
there’s someone figuring out how to get us while our eyes are closed.” 2
As marketers intensify their efforts to get the attention of consumers, resentment
against their integrated marketing communications efforts is likely to increase. As discussed
in the opening vignette, concern is growing that there will be a consumer backlash
as integrated marketing efforts move to new heights and marketers become
increasingly aggressive. Diane Cook, a former advertising executive who founded the
AdCenter at Virginia Commonwealth, says: “The growing practice of placing ads and
logos everywhere seems a desperate last attempt to make branding work according to
the old rules. As telemarketing, advertising, promotions and the rest continue at a frenzied
pace, the value of the messages decrease. The system seems headed for a large
implosion.” 3
Because of its high visibility and pervasiveness, along with its persuasive character,
advertising has been the subject of a great deal of controversy and criticism. Numerous
books are critical of not only advertising’s methods and techniques but also its social
consequences. Various parties—including scholars, economists, politicians, sociologists,
government agencies, social critics, special-interest groups, and consumers—
have attacked advertising and other forms of marketing communications for a variety
of reasons, including their excessiveness, the way they influence society, the methods
they use, their exploitation of consumers, and their effect on our economic system.
Advertising is a very powerful force, and this text would not be complete without a
look at the criticisms regarding its social and economic effects as well as some
defenses against these charges. We consider the various criticisms of advertising and
promotion from an ethical and societal perspective and then appraise the economic
effects of advertising.
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
In the previous chapter, we examined the
regulatory environment in which advertising
and promotion operate. While many
laws and regulations determine what advertisers can and cannot do, not every issue is
covered by a rule. Marketers must often make decisions regarding appropriate and
responsible actions on the basis of ethical considerations rather than on what is legal
or within industry guidelines. Ethics are moral principles and values that govern the
actions and decisions of an individual or group. 4
Advertising and Promotion Ethics
A particular action may be within the law and still not be ethical. A good example of
this involves target marketing. No laws restrict tobacco companies from targeting
advertising and promotion for new brands to African-Americans. However, given the
high levels of lung cancer and smoking-related illnesses among the black population,
many people would consider this an unethical business practice.
Throughout this text we have presented a number of ethical perspectives to show
how various aspects of advertising and promotion often involve ethical considerations.
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Chapter Twenty-two Evaluating the Social, Ethical, and Economic Aspects
of Advertising and Promotion