We have a lot of important issues today that are unprecedented in history due to technological advancement of our age, such as: global warming, ecological pollution, DNA modification and patenting of crops, meat industry, and the list goes on. All these issues have to be addressed and decided upon with as much ethical prowess and unity of opinion among people as possible. Public opinion is a huge power and ability to sway it one way or the other can make or break a presidency, a corporate monopoly, domestic and foreign policies, or pass laws. Advertising is a very large omnipresent industry, whose sole purpose is to skillfully grab our attention and shape our decisions, thus manipulating public opinions. According to communications professor Joseph Turow, by targeting certain niches among consumers based on lifestyles, advertising segregates already diverse community even further, thus making it impossible for people to come to a consensus on critical issues, which demand our attention without delay (Goshgarian and Krueger 297). Therefore, it is important to consider how ethical advertising tactics really are, and whether it is necessary to create adequate regulations in order to control the industry.
Multimedia telecommunication technologies today have reached a point where sponsors and organizations are able to receive feedback from their viewers and readers through their choices. News programs like CNN even offer to vote by sending text message to a certain number in order to choose which news piece is going to be shown next. With such advancements in technology, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that decision making by the public has become a more coherent and straightforward process, where any particular issue can be ...
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... and distraction is the affect that modern advertising achieves among consumers, while pressing issues such as healthcare crisis need our attention and erudition, then can modern advertising be considered unethical? To simplify the question of ethics, let’s put it this way: when one is about to get hit by a train while another is trying to divert his attention in order to sell him a pretzel, is selling an ethical thing to do considering that distraction endangers the potential buyer? Does he really need that pretzel, or should he get off the tracks as soon as possible?
Works Cited
Goshgarian, Gary, and Kathleen Krueger, ed. Dialogues: An Argument Rhertoric and Reader. Longman: Pearson, 2011. Print.
Turow, Joseph. “Targeting a New World.” Goshgarian and Krueger 294-97.
Rushkoff, Douglas. “Which One of These Sneakers Is Me?” Goshgarian and Krueger 298-301.
Michael R. Hyman; Richard Tansey; James W. Clark (1994). Research on Advertising Ethics: Past, Present, and Future: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Ethics in Advertising pp. 5-15.: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Sut Jhally, a professor at the university of Massachusetts of whom won the distinguished teacher award, wrote in his essay “ Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse” that : 20th century advertising - the most powerful propaganda in human history - will destroy the world as we know it. The survival of the human race will depend upon our ability to minimize the harmful effects of Advertising. These effects will have lasting impacts on our culture, joy, and future.
In order to get insights into the consumer perception about the role of advertising we have reviewed a number of articles and conducted four in-depth interviews. A number of research papers reach opposed conclusions. These vary from the ones stating that "the ethicality of a firm's behavior is an important consideration during the purchase decision" and that consumers "will reward ethical behavior by a willingness to pay higher prices for that firm's product" (Creyer and Ross Jr.
Advertising is designed to foster a desire to purchase goods and services, yet it is much deeper than that—advertising is a system of effective manipulation that twists the mentalities of those subjected to it. It shapes people’s views of the world and warps their connections to each other. Therefore, advertising not only shapes their personal values but also distorts them until their principles no longer come from within them. Thus, in my opinion, advertising, unless deeply rooted in high ethical standards, destroys any concept of community, common morality or deep bonding.
Advertising is a $125 billion industry that attracts the attention of the public. Advertising is used as a tool of persuasion in television, magazines, radio, billboards, and in-store displays. The incredible amount of money, artistic ability, and intellectual energy spent on advertisements helps us understand the great power of the media and the advertiser's ability to control their viewers.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Advertising in its purest form has been an essential part of the business world for centuries. The purpose of advertising is to inform society of a certain product and/or service that has become available. Advertising is used as a method of communication between a consumer and the company in which the product is from, because it persuades the consumers to take action. According to Lindsay in “The Case of Print Media Advertising in the Internet Age” the individuals who are above the age of 18 and reside in America, spend a total of 9 hours, and 35 minutes using media per day (2007). In figure 1 it shows that non-print advertisements represent the majority of the time spent utilizing this media. The pie-chart showed that certain individuals spent 44.5% of their time watching television, 27.8% listening to the radio, and 5.3% on the internet meanwhile newspapers, music, magazines and books resulted in a total of 16.5% combined (The Case of Print, 2007, pg. 7). We are exposed to several hundreds of advertisements every day; some of these advertisements include direct phone calls from telemarketers, billboards, and commercials. While print advertisements aren’t at the high end of the typical consumers view scale, they are the most effective due to the consistency in which they appear. The use of print advertisements in marketing is posing a great danger to all members of society, because they put a damper on both men and women’s self-worth, encourage the use alcohol in minors, and is causing obesity rates to increase. (should be and causes obesity rates to increase, the way you have it is not parallel)
In 1994, a new form of advertising and getting products and services into the world was discovered: the internet. Online advertising has been growing rapidly. We can see advertisements on almost any webpage we go to. Even if you try to avoid ads, you are bound to find some. This leads us to a crucial part of advertising which is ethics.
Morality and ethic in the field of marketing and advertisement, especially geared toward the teenage and young adult markets, does not seem to have a place. Advertisers use a host of techniques to achieve their ultimate goal of extracting money from an estimated 150 billion dollar teen market. They use viral marketing, subliminal, and sex just to name a few. They even turn children into their very own (unpaid) brand spokespeople. We live in a world where advertisers and marketeers will sell their products by any means necessary and the ends justifies the means.
Advertisers and corporations are liable for using modern and sophisticated forms of mind control to the extent level of brainwashing consumers, in order to manipulate their choices and their spending habits. Our society is being negatively impacted, by becoming a consumer driven society constantly distracted by overwhelming persuasive advertisements, as opposed to ideal informative advertisements. The most vulnerable and negatively impacted targets of persuasive advertising are the younger, less mature, and/or less knowledgeable and self-directed consumers. Ironically, it was once said “An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15% commission” (Allen). It is quite clear that social benefits are not part of this equation. The harm and severe social related costs far outweigh any economic growth and benefits deemed necessary for advertising and marketing companies.
audience, the advertising industry is charged with several ethical breeches, which focus on a lack of societal responsibility (Treise 59). Child Advocacy groups and concerned parents, among others, question the ethicality of advertising claims and appeals that are directed towards vulnerable groups in particular, children (Bush 31).
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.
Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.
In conclusion, although seeing the method of manipulating information in a church-based moral sense as wrong all the time, its use is not wrong in all cases. People are more inclined to anything if they were emotionally appalled. Therefore, their use in advertisements is necessary and indispensable. But there are different cases. In some cases of using fallacies in advertisements, the end justifies the means when potential harm to the people is not foreseen; but in some it does not, especially when the product endorsed has foreseeable risks to the public.