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What Is Advertising Ethical?

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Advertising is a big business that grows rapidly and continuously. It penetrates our daily lives in many ways that we may not have noticed all of them. We may possess the impression on one product without knowing the reason why we remember it. According to research conducted by Yankelovich, a person living in the city will see approximately 5,000 advertising message a day. (Story, 2007) Advertisers spend a large amount of capital in marketing research in order to understand and grasp the mentality of consumers, indoctrinating the masses the importance of owning the products. Advertisements keep persuading us to purchase, causing consumerism and materialism. Some may think advertising is detrimental to society while some may think it brings …show more content…

Ethical
By definition, ethics is a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong. In our opinion, advertising itself is not ethically harmful to the society, but advertising tactics can be so. Apart from stimulating the demand of the products, advertising plays on human desires for safety, acceptance and self-esteem to influence consumers’ choices. As companies and advertising agencies blindly aim at profit maximization while neglecting the ethical principles, advertisements may lead to misconceptions. For example, the “Perfect Body” campaign by Victoria’s Secret misleads audiences, especially teenagers, the incorrect definition of beauty. (Luxen, 2014) Girls without the “perfect body” may suffer from low self-esteem which can cause bigger issues, such as …show more content…

Due to the heavy exposure to advertising in their daily lives, the general public pay more attention on their extrinsic values rather that intrinsic values. According to the ‘Think of Me as Evil’ report conducted by WWF and the Public Interest Research Centre, advertising is found that to encourage the society to borrow more and save less. It promotes a message to ask people to work harder and consume greater quantities of material goods. (J Alexander, 2011) It paves a way to the general public focus more on their extrinsic values, meaning the conformity, image, financial success, achievement and power. From investigating the research done by Frederick Grouzet and Tim Kasser, placing too much attention on extrinsic value possesses a close relationship with higher level of prejudice. (Williams, 2011) It is on no account good for the society. People become more apathetic to human rights and their society environment. Moreover, their personal well-being will definitely be decreased to lower extent. Some critical examples are advertising shows that both slim and pretty woman, tall and handsome man are more likely to get a full-time job. Besides, a hero in an advertising story holds up Coco-cola instead of Pepsi when he gains victory. All of these easily shift audience awareness from intrinsic value to extrinsic

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