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Business Ethics MGT610

LESSON 38

ADVERTISING ETHICS

Though advertising is sometimes defined as "information," this fails to distinguish it from the

type of information found in Consumer Reports. Most advertisements contain precious little

information in any case: "Got Milk?" and "Just Do It" are nearly empty statements. The

primary function of advertisements is to sell products to prospective buyers. It is publicly

addressed to a mass audience, so it has a necessarily widespread social effect. It is also intended

to create desire and a belief in consumers that the product will satisfy the desire.

Advertising's critics point out that it has several harmful effects on society. First, its

psychological effects are damaging in that it debases the tastes of consumers by inculcating

materialistic values about how to achieve happiness. Whether or not advertising has such

effects is still uncertain. Indeed, the success of advertising may depend on consumers already

having the values that the advertisements focus upon.

Another major criticism of advertising is that it is wasteful. Those who make this type of

objection point to the distinction between production costs and selling costs. Production costs

are the costs of the resources consumed in producing a product. Selling costs are the additional

costs of resources that do not go into the product itself, but rather are incurred as a result of

persuading consumers to purchase it. The resources consumed by advertising, according to this

theory, add nothing to the utility of the product.

Advertisers counter that advertisements do add information to the product, but of course, the

information could be supplied more directly and inexpensively. They also say, however, that

advertising creates desire and thus is responsible for a gradually expanding economy.

There is considerable controversy over whether advertising is responsible for the growing

economy, however. Advertising appears to be most successful at shifting consumption from

one producer to another, not at expanding consumption generally. Even if it could expand

consumption, theorists do not agree that this would be good: increased consumption leads,

among other things, to increased pollution and depletion of resources. Though some critics

have also blamed advertising for monopolies, there is no conclusive evidence that advertising

and monopolistic markets are connected.

John Kenneth Galbraith and other critics have long argued that advertising merely manipulates

consumers, creating desires solely to absorb industrial output. Physical desires, such as the

desire for food and shelter, are perfectly normal. But the psychological desires that are inspired

by advertising are not under the consumer's control in the same way that physical desires are,

which puts the firm (instead of the individual) in control. If Galbraith's view is correct, then

advertising violates the individual's right to choose freely for him or herself. It is not clear,

however, that this view is correct, and theorists such as F. A. von Hayek have pointed out that

psychic wants have been around longer than advertising in any case.

The most common criticism of advertising concerns is its effect on the consumer's beliefs.

Because advertising is a form of communication, it can be as truthful or deceptive as any other

form of communication. Most criticisms of advertising focus on the deceptive aspects of

modern advertising. Nevertheless, even if advertising as a whole is not manipulative, there are

clearly some advertisements that are intended to manipulate. Such advertisements do clearly

violate the consumer's right to be treated as a free and equal rational being.

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Business Ethics MGT610

Deceptive advertising takes many forms: the "bait and switch," untrue paid testimonials, or

simulating brand names are all forms of deception. There is no controversy over whether or not

deceptive advertising is immoral: it clearly is. The problem is to understand how advertising

becomes deceptive.

All communication involves three things: the author or originator of the message, the medium

that carries the message, and the audience who receives it. Deception involves three necessary

conditions in the author:

1. The author must intend to have the audience believe something false.

2. The author must know it to be false.

3. The author must knowingly do something to bring about this false belief.

Thus, an advertiser cannot be held responsible for an audience having misinterpreted a message

when the misinterpretation is unintended, unforeseen, or the result of carelessness on the part of

the audience.

The media carrying the message also has a responsibility to ensure the truth of what it carries to

the audience. Both the author and the media must take into account the interpretive skills of the

audience as well. To determine the ethical nature of an advertisement, the following points are

relevant: the intended and actual social effects of the advertisement; the informing or

persuasive character of the advertisement, and whether it creates irrational or injurious desires;

and the whether the advertisement's content is truthful or tends to mislead.

The Benefits of Advertising

4. Enormous human and material resources are devoted to advertising. Advertising is

everywhere in today's world, so that, as Pope Paul VI remarked, "No one now can escape the

influence of advertising."6 Even people who are not themselves exposed to particular forms of

advertising confront a society, a culture -- other people -- affected for good or ill by

advertising messages and techniques of every sort.

Some critics view this state of affairs in un-relievedly negative terms. They condemn

advertising as a waste of time, talent and money -- an essentially parasitic activity. In this

view, not only does advertising have no value of its own, but its influence is entirely harmful

and corrupting for individuals and society.

We do not agree. There is truth to the criticisms, and we shall make criticisms of our own. But

advertising also has significant potential for good, and sometimes it is realized. Here are some

of the ways that happens.

a) Economic Benefits of Advertising

5. Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an economic system guided

by moral norms and responsive to the common good contributes to human development. It is a

necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today either exist or are

emerging in many parts of the world and which -- provided they conform to moral standards

based upon integral human development and the common good -- currently seem to be "the

most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs" of a

socio-economic kind.7

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Business Ethics MGT610

In such a system, advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining honest and ethically responsible

competition that contributes to economic growth in the service of authentic human

development. "The Church looks with favor on the growth of man's productive capacity, and

also on the ever widening network of relationships and exchanges between persons and social

groups....[F]rom this point of view she encourages advertising, which can become a wholesome

and efficacious instrument for reciprocal help among men."8

Advertising does this, among other ways, by informing people about the availability of

rationally desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones, helping

them to make informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the

lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and

trade. All of this can contribute to the creation of new jobs, higher incomes and a more decent

and humane way of life for all. It also helps pay for publications, programming and productions

-- including those of the Church -- that bring information, entertainment and inspiration to

people around the world.

b) Benefits of Political Advertising

6. "The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of

citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing

and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful

means when appropriate."

Political advertising can make a contribution to democracy analogous to its contribution to

economic well being in a market system guided by moral norms. As free and responsible media

in a democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the monopolization of power on

the part of oligarchies and special interests, so political advertising can make its contribution by

informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates, including new

candidates not previously known to the public.

c) Cultural Benefits of Advertising

7. Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue; advertisers

have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content. This they

do by supporting material of excellent intellectual, aesthetic and moral quality presented with

the public interest in view, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media

presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go un-served.

Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and

inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others.

Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty, tasteful and entertaining. Some

advertisements are instances of popular art, with a vivacity and elan all their own.

d) Moral and Religious Benefits of Advertising

8. In many cases, too, benevolent social institutions, including those of a religious nature, use

advertising to communicate their messages -- messages of faith, of patriotism, of tolerance,

compassion and neighborly service, of charity toward the needy, messages concerning health

and education, constructive and helpful messages that educate and motivate people in a variety

of beneficial ways.

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Business Ethics MGT610

For the Church, involvement in media-related activities, including advertising, is today a

necessary part of a comprehensive pastoral strategy. This includes both the Church's own media

-- Catholic press and publishing, television and radio broadcasting, film and audiovisual

production, and the rest -- and also her participation in secular media. The media "can and

should be instruments in the Church's program of re-evangelization and new evangelization in

the contemporary world."11 While much remains to be done, many positive efforts of this kind

already are underway. With reference to advertising itself, Pope Paul VI once said that it is

desirable that Catholic institutions "follow with constant attention the development of the

modern techniques of advertising and... know how to make opportune use of them in order to

spread the Gospel message in a manner which answers the expectations and needs of

contemporary man."

The harm done by advertising

9. There is nothing intrinsically good or intrinsically evil about advertising. It is a tool, an

instrument: it can be used well, and it can be used badly. If it can have, and sometimes does

have, beneficial results such as those just described, it also can, and often does, have a negative,

harmful impact on individuals and society.

Communio et Progressio contains this summary statement of the problem: "If harmful or

utterly useless goods are touted to the public, if false assertions are made about goods for sale,

if less than admirable human tendencies are exploited, those responsible for such advertising

harm society and forfeit their good name and credibility. More than this, unremitting pressure

to buy articles of luxury can arouse false wants that hurt both individuals and families by

making them ignore what they really need. And those forms of advertising which, without

shame, exploit the sexual instincts simply to make money or which seek to penetrate into the

subconscious recesses of the mind in a way that threatens the freedom of the individual ... must

be shunned."

a) Economic Harms of Advertising

10. Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by misrepresentation and by

withholding relevant facts. Sometimes, too, the information function of media can be subverted

by advertisers' pressure upon publications or programs not to treat of questions that might prove

embarrassing or inconvenient. More often, though, advertising is used not simply to inform but

to persuade and motivate -- to convince people to act in certain ways: buy certain products or

services, patronize certain institutions, and the like. This is where particular abuses can occur.

The practice of "brand"-related advertising can raise serious problems. Often there are only

negligible differences among similar products of different brands, and advertising may attempt

to move people to act on the basis of irrational motives ("brand loyalty," status, fashion, "sex

appeal," etc.) instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for rational

choice.

Advertising also can be, and often is, a tool of the "phenomenon of consumerism," as Pope

John Paul II delineated it when he said: "It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is

a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward ?having' rather than

?being', and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in

enjoyment as an end in itself. "Sometimes advertisers speak of it as part of their task to "create"

needs for products and services -- that is, to cause people to feel and act upon cravings for

items and services they do not need. "If ... a direct appeal is made to his instincts -- while

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Business Ethics MGT610

ignoring in various ways the reality of the person as intelligent and free -- then consumer

attitudes and life-styles can be created which are objectively improper and often damaging to

his physical and spiritual health."

This is a serious abuse, an affront to human dignity and the common good when it occurs in

affluent societies. But the abuse is still more grave when consumerist attitudes and values are

transmitted by communications media and advertising to developing countries, where they

exacerbate socio-economic problems and harm the poor. "It is true that a judicious use of

advertising can stimulate developing countries to improve their standard of living. But serious

harm can be done them if advertising and commercial pressure become so irresponsible that

communities seeking to rise from poverty to a reasonable standard of living are persuaded to

seek this progress by satisfying wants that have been artificially created. The result of this is

that they waste their resources and neglect their real needs, and genuine development falls

behind."

Similarly, the task of countries attempting to develop types of market economies that serve

human needs and interests after decades under centralized, state-controlled systems is made

more difficult by advertising that promotes consumerist attitudes and values offensive to human

dignity and the common good. The problem is particularly acute when, as often happens, the

dignity and welfare of society's poorer and weaker members are at stake. It is necessary always

to bear in mind that there are "goods which by their very nature cannot and must not be bought

or sold" and to avoid "an? Idolatry' of the market" that, aided and abetted by advertising,

ignores this crucial fact.

b) Harms of Political Advertising

11. Political advertising can support and assist the working of the democratic process, but it

also can obstruct it. This happens when, for example, the costs of advertising limit political

competition to wealthy candidates or groups, or require that office-seekers compromise their

integrity and independence by over-dependence on special interests for funds.

Such obstruction of the democratic process also happens when, instead of being a vehicle for

honest expositions of candidates' views and records, political advertising seeks to distort the

views and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when

advertising appeals more to people's emotions and base instincts -- to selfishness, bias and

hostility toward others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like -- rather than to a reasoned

sense of justice and the good of all.

c) Cultural Harms of Advertising

12. Advertising also can have a corrupting influence upon culture and cultural values. We have

spoken of the economic harm that can be done to developing nations by advertising that fosters

consumerism and destructive patterns of consumption. Consider also the cultural injury done to

these nations and their peoples by advertising whose content and methods, reflecting those

prevalent in the first world, are at war with sound traditional values in indigenous cultures.

Today this kind of "domination and manipulation" via media rightly is "a concern of

developing nations in relation to developed ones," as well as a "concern of minorities within

particular nations."

The indirect but powerful influence exerted by advertising upon the media of social

communications that depend on revenues from this source points to another sort of cultural

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Business Ethics MGT610

concern. In the competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to advertisers,

communicators can find themselves tempted -- in fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly -- to

set aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality, tawdriness and moral

squalor.

Communicators also can find themselves tempted to ignore the educational and social needs of

certain segments of the audience -- the very young, the very old, the poor -- who do not match

the demographic patterns (age, education, income, habits of buying and consuming, etc.) of the

kinds of audiences advertisers want to reach. In this way the tone and indeed the level of moral

responsibility of the communications media in general are lowered.

All too often, advertising contributes to the invidious stereotyping of particular groups that

places them at a disadvantage in relation to others. This often is true of the way advertising

treats women; and the exploitation of women, both in and by advertising, is a frequent,

deplorable abuse. "How often are they treated not as persons with an inviolable dignity but as

objects whose purpose is to satisfy others' appetite for pleasure or for power? How often the

role of woman as wife and mother is undervalued or even ridiculed? How often is the role of

women in business or professional life depicted as a masculine caricature, a denial of the

specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion, and understanding, which so greatly contribute

to the ?civilization of love'?"

d) Moral and Religious Harms of Advertising

13. Advertising can be tasteful and in conformity with high moral standards, and occasionally

even morally uplifting, but it also can be vulgar and morally degrading. Frequently it

deliberately appeals to such motives as envy, status seeking and lust. Today, too, some

advertisers consciously seek to shock and titillate by exploiting content of a morbid, perverse,

pornographic nature. What this Pontifical Council said several years ago about pornography

and violence in the media is no less true of certain forms of advertising:

"As reflections of the dark side of human nature marred by sin, pornography and the exaltation

of violence are age-old realities of the human condition. In the past quarter century, however,

they have taken on new dimensions and have become serious social problems. At a time of

widespread and unfortunate confusion about moral norms, the communications media have

made pornography and violence accessible to a vastly expanded audience, including young

people and even children, and a problem which at one time was confined mainly to wealthy

countries has now begun, via the communications media, to corrupt moral values in developing

nations." We note, too, certain special problems relating to advertising that treats of religion or

pertains to specific issues with a moral dimension.

In cases of the first sort, commercial advertisers sometimes include religious themes or use

religious images or personages to sell products. It is possible to do this in tasteful, acceptable

ways, but the practice is obnoxious and offensive when it involves exploiting religion or

treating it flippantly.

In cases of the second sort, advertising sometimes is used to promote products and inculcate

attitudes and forms of behavior contrary to moral norms. That is the case, for instance, with the

advertising of contraceptives, abortifacients and products harmful to health, and with

government-sponsored advertising campaigns for artificial birth control, so-called "safe sex",

and similar practices.