Advertising ETHIC
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Transcript of Advertising ETHIC
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
NEW DELHI
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING AND SOCIETY: ETHICS, REGULATION, AND SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
SUBMITTED BY:
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
THE BENEFITS OF ADVERTISING
THE HARM DONE BY ADVERTISING
SOME ETHICAL AND MORAL PRINCIPLES
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABSTRACT
The importance of advertising is "steadily on the increase in modern society." That
observation, made by this Pontifical Council a quarter century ago as part of an
overview of the state of communications, is even more true now.
Just as the media of social communication themselves have enormous influence
everywhere, so advertising, using media as its vehicle, is a pervasive, powerful force
shaping attitudes and behavior in today's world. In today's society, advertising has a
profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially
in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving
1
INTRODUCTION
Advertising is not the same as marketing (the complex of commercial functions
involved in transferring goods from producers and consumers) or public relations (the
systematic effort to create a favorable public impression or ?image' of some person,
group, or entity). In many cases, though, it is a technique or instrument employed by
one or both of these.
Advertising can be very simple — a local, even ?neighborhood,' phenomenon — or it
can be very complex, involving sophisticated research and multimedia campaigns that
span the globe. It differs according to its intended audience, so that, for example,
advertising aimed at children raises some technical and moral issues significantly
different from those raised by advertising aimed at competent adults.
Not only are many different media and techniques employed in advertising;
advertising itself is of several different kinds: commercial advertising for products
and services; public service advertising on behalf of various institutions, programs,
and causes; and — a phenomenon of growing importance today — political
advertising in the interests of parties and candidates. Making allowance for the
differences among the different kinds and methods of advertising, we intend what
follows to be applicable to them all.
We disagree with the assertion that advertising simply mirrors the attitudes and values
of the surrounding culture. No doubt advertising, like the media of social
communications in general, does act as a mirror. But, also like media in general, it is a
mirror that helps shape the reality it reflects, and sometimes it presents a distorted
image of reality.
2
Advertisers are selective about the values and attitudes to be fostered and encouraged,
promoting some while ignoring others. This selectivity gives the lie to the notion that
advertising does no more than reflect the surrounding culture. For example, the
absence from advertising of certain racial and ethnic groups in some multi-racial or
multi-ethnic societies can help to create problems of image and identity, especially
among those neglected, and the almost inevitable impression in commercial
advertising that an abundance of possessions leads to happiness and fulfillment can be
both misleading and frustrating.
ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN THE MODERN BUSINESS WORLD
Advertising is a low cost way of conveying selling messages to numerous prospects
and is important in most marketing programs. Besides stimulating demand it serves
many other function. By using advertising to pre-sell customers i.e. to arouse and
intensify their buying interest in advance the management hopes to facilitate the
salesman’s selling task. Advertising after creating awareness about the product
develops interest among customers and hence facilitating job of a salesman
Contribution To Economic Growth
Advertising contributes to economic growth by helping to expand the market,
particularly for new products, and by helping to expand the market, particularly for
new products, and by helping to develop new market segments. A Company, which
invests in research and development in order to develop new product, has to depend a
great deal on advertising for establishing the market for these products. In the broad
social context, advertising can be a motivating factor for the less privileged as they
may be induced to some extent to make additional efforts and seek opportunities for
increasing their purchasing power. Advertising is also a potent vehicle for achieving
3
acceptance of desirable and useful concepts and ideas where the profit motive is
minimal or missing altogether. This may be seen in the case of non-profit objectives,
such as preventive aspects of public health, developing the small-family norm
especially in over-populated countries, dissuading drunken driving and so forth.
Catalyst For Change
Creativity inherent in advertising leads to the discovery of new relationships that can
change the perception of a prospect. Two aspects are of special significance the
originality of the message communicated, and the eventual, effect on consumer’s
standards of living the ability to bring about changes comes from originality,
ingenuity, innovation and imagination in advertising. This may be seen in promoting
new products and ideas, as well as, in the upgrading of products/brands used by
consumers. The contribution of advertising in bringing about a change is as special
relevance to developing countries like India.
PLANNING
A FINGURE ON THE PULSES
Good ads don’t just happen. In general, the essence of successful advertising is the
planning that takes place at the beginning of the process. Proper planning gives an
advertiser the ability to better understand and reach prime prospects with the right
message placed in the proper media environment. It is rare that a great campaign is
simply the result of simple intuition. Most great advertising comes from hard work
and research. Rarely can good advertising sell consumers bad products. The product’s
quality its competitions and its stage of development will affect the role of its
advertising campaign Consumer are very perceptive about the products they buy and
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that is why one of the critical aspects of advertising decision making is developing a
strategy.
The understanding, nurturing and protecting of the investments in brands has become
a very hot topic in the 1990s and will continue to be on the minds of marketing
communications people. Many marketers have been guilty of neglecting their brands
in favour of short termed profit solution – extensive couponing, pricing discounts ,
and so on – which weakened their products value among consumers. As a result there
has been a lot of focus ways to integrate marketing communications, build brand
equity, and other strategic efforts in the product development and marketing
objectives – the strategic plan process prior to creating ads. We will examine several
aspects important to creating the strategic plan and the advertising implications.
Despite many marketing practices being challenged today, one of the constants is the
need to have a clear understanding of the product and consumer wants and needs
when making strategic advertising decisions.
The development stage a product is in, determines the advertising message. As
products pass through a number of stage -from introduction to dominance to ultimate
demise – the manner in which advertising presents the product to consumers depends
largely upon the degree of acceptance the product has earned with consumers. The
degree of acceptance can be identified as the product passes through its life cycle. It is
this degree of acceptance that determines the advertising stage of the product.
Pioneering stage
People don’t always run to buy a revolutionary new product. For one thing it may
never have occurred to consumer that they need or want the product and as a result
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don’t feel compelled to buy it, until people appreciate the fact that they need it a
product is in the pioneering stage.
Advertising used in the pioneering stage introduces an idea that makes previous
conception appear antiquated. It must show that methods once accepted the only ones
possible have been approved and that the limitations long tolerated as normal are now
overcome. It is hard to believe, but consumers didn’t rush out to buy the first
deodorants. Many who were concerned with body odour simply used talcum powder
under the arms. So we can’t take for granted the fact that consumers will change their
habits. The advertising in this stage must do more than simply present a product – it
must implant a new custom, change habits, develop new usage, or cultivate new
standards of living. In short, advertising in the pioneering stage of a product’s must
educate the consumers to the new product or service.
Competitive Stage:
When the pioneering product becomes accepted by consumers and they have a desire
for it, there is going to be competition. The consumer how knows what the product is
and how it can be used. At this point, the main question the consumer asks is which
brand shall I buy? When this happens, the product has entered the competitive
advertising.
Among the many everyday products in the competitive stage are deodorants, soaps ,
toothpastes, cars, detergents, headache remedies, shaving creams, shampoos,
televisions and chocolates. The purpose of the competitive stage advertising is to
communicate the product’s position or differentiate it to the consumer; the advertising
features the differential of the product.
Retentive Stage
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Products reaching maturity and wide scale acceptance enter the retentive or reminder
stage of advertising. When a product is accepted and used by consumers, there may
not be a need for competitive advertising. At this point, everybody knows about it ….
Why advertise it? Over the years many manufacturers of successful products have
stopped advertising and seen the public quickly forget about them. Therefore, most
astute advertisers try to retain their customers by keeping the brand name before them.
This is called reminder advertising – it simply reminds consumers the brand exists.
Very few advertisers reach the point where they can consider their products entirely in
the reminder stage. There are usually other products in the pioneering and competitive
stages challenging their leadership position. In fact if a product is truly all alone in the
retentive stage, that may be cause of alarm. It may mean the product category is in
decline and the competition sees little further in challenging it for consumers.
The advertiser’s goal in the retentive stage is to gain market share and ward off
consumer trail of other products. Products in the retentive stage do not necessarily cut
back on their advertising expenditure, but they adopt marketing and promotional
strategies different from those used in the pioneering and competitive stages. When a
brand is used by a large portion of the market, on the assumption that the most
prominent brand will get the largest share of the increase.
Generally, products in the retentive stage are at their most profitable level because
developmental costs have been amortized, distribution channels establised and sales
contract made. The development of advertising and promotion may often be routine at
this stage. Obviously, companies like to maintain their products in the retentive stage
as long as possible.
7
With consumer behaviour and market dynamics changing rapidly, account planning
will gain greater importance in advertising, predict the champions of the Springboard
strategy. In today’s intensely competitive and diverse market situation, companies,
and particularly marketing professionals who are often regarded the custodians of
their brands, are constantly trying to assess the core value of their brands and the kind
of advertising strategy they need to adopt to bring the best results. Success does not
come easy in finding a foolproof solution. The demands made by clients of their
advertising agencies have forced the latter to seek methodologies that provide the
right solution to a client’s requirement - on time, everytime. Enter Account Planning.
Increasingly, advertising agencies are using account planning techniques for a clear
insight which, in turn, could help evolve winning product and communication
strategies. Account planning is not a new mantra in the advertising profession. It can
be traced back to 1968, to the UK particularly, where the concept has gained
momentum over the years. Some of the earlier pioneers of account planning in Europe
were J. Walter Thompson and BMP. While JWT has its traditional T-Plan, BMP,
which is now BMP-DDB, has a proprietary tool, ‘the Springboard approach’, that is
essentially an account planning device.
Account planning was pioneered by BMP-DDB to bridge the gulf between
advertisers and their target audiences and to ensure that consumers played their role in
advertising development. In doing so, it has also succeeded in reconciling distinctive
creativity with market relevance, so that the UK’s most ‘creative’ agencies are also
‘planning’ agencies.
In a presentation on Account Planning at the Advertising Club of Bangatore recently,
the need for specialised account planning personnel in an advertising agency was
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emphasised through three ‘classic case studies of the agency in UK’ that adopted the
Springboard approach successfully to create advertising. The three cases are:
Volkswagen, Marmite and the British Government’s department in charge of beef
sales. In each of these cases, there were some glitches such as a wrong product
perception among consumers or the inability to assess the overall market and brand
situations. These had led to a decline in sales of these three brands over a period of
time. This continued until BMP-DDB chipped in with the Springboard and
subsequently, sales of these three brands skyrocketed.
The Springboard strategy essentially involves six tools: relevance, originality, impact
(ROI); brand foundation, creative, media, evaluation and learning and integrated
springboard. ROI is the core technique that evolves a brand’s communication
strategy, Brand foundation primarily sets the objective of the overall identity that the
agency and client want to create for the brand. Creative springboard deals with
creative briefing, while media and integrated approaches explore insights into media
affairs and the integration of a different section of audiences and messages. The
process of evaluation and learning help the agency measure the effectiveness of the
campaign and how the agency can leverage this further.
While these appear impressive, can they work in the Indian scenario? Are companies
aware of what account planning can to do them or their brand? For last 6 years Mudra
has been pratising account planning. For them, it has grown beyond the classic role of
having a representative for the customer in the agency. Increasingly in India, account
planning will gain greater importnace as change in consumer behaviour and market
dynamics have been happening faster in the recent past.
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Often, some marketing professionals fail to comprehend the changes in the
marketplace until they analyse consumer behaviour, either product category-wise or
brand-wise. Two key changes have happened in India in recent years: the first is the
growing significance of the teenage segment. The brand managers at aerated soft
drinks brands and badge brands such as Lee, Levi’s, Nike and Reebok, among others,
are busy fixing their brands in the minds of the teenagers in the age group of 1 to 18.
The logic is to catch them young and hook them on to a particular brand. The second
noticeable change is the diffusion of the clear demarcation between the urban and the
rural markets. Products like denim are not bought by the urban consumer alone
anymore. There was a time when a marketer covered the top few cities and achieved
an 80 per cent market penetration, now we find that companies need to cover 200
cities to get that 80 per cent market coverage. There is something that has happened in
Indian society at the macro level and it needs to be tracked. If his idea is still not
buyable examine this bit of information: Mudra recenly conducted a study in the top
ten cities of the country to track consumer behaviour across different age segments
and categories. It was found that in the children of less than 10 years segment, the
pocket money or disposable money available comes to about Rs 25 crores per month!
This may be the reason why the gum category of chewing and bubble gums has
quadrupoed in the last three years from a Rs 50-crore market to about Rs 200 crores
currently.
At a macro level, account planning may sound like another term for market research.
For, if the discipline involves tracking consumer behaviour and cracking numbers,
how different is it from market research? Research is just one of the sources that the
account planner uses. A lot of it comes from reading and observation and a planner’s
task is to be well informed on various issues and topics that might be relevant to a
10
particular task or to a particular client. The account planner and the creative team of
the agency often travel in buses to small towns to get a feel of how this consumer
behaves. This helped the agency enormously in devising a communication strategy for
its client HMT’s mechanical watches.
Besides HMT, the Springboard strategy seems to have helped three brands in the
country in particular Dhara, Peter England and Blue Diamond Almonds. Dhara
launched a sunflower variant in 1992. Though the sunflower category witnessed
immense growth during the next four years, Dhara’s volumes did not take off as
expected. While Sweekar and Sundrop were positioned at the two ends of the health
spectrum- preventive and curative health - all the other brands fell in between. Dhara
was no exception to this rule.
NDDB relaunched the Dhara sunflower oil last year and Mudra was asked to suggest
a communication strategy. the agency used the Springboard strategy to understand the
consumer better and the key insight that was thrown up was that a housewife’s life
revolves around her husband and children. Children considered their father to be a
role model and the latter was important for the family’s well being. Children are
always proud of a healthy and active father. This insight led to the creation of the ‘my
daddy strongest’ campaign. Mudra claims that the brand has crossed the target sales
within the first nine months of launching the campaingn.
The Springboard strategy was also used in the case of Peter England shirts from
Madura Garments. The approach helped the account management team understand
that the market had a range of brands that were commanding an unjustifiable
premium. The key insight was to offer value for money in a simple, practical and
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reassuring tone of voice. Value for money became synonymous with smart. Thus, the
honest shirt concept.
In the case of blue diamond almonds, in a category that is dominated by loose sale of
the product. Mudra discovered that the buyer finds the selection of the proper quality
of almonds a source of pride. Since packed almonds did not allow the ritual of
checking the almonds at the store before purchase, the advertising had to play upon
the consumer’s experience on look, size and colour of the brand. the research also
emphaised how important the sound that was produced while eating a fresh almond
was to a consumer. Thus came the line, ‘Kurkuri tazgi’, in the advertising campaign
for the brand.
Going by Mudra’s experience, it is clear that account planning is here to stay. At a
time when the advertising industry is at the crossroads with fluctuating fortunes and
poor growth rates, account planning techniques could well become the new mantra to
reiterate to clients that advertising works - not just in parts, but completely.
12
THE BENEFITS OF ADVERTISING
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." 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 unrelievedly 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
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.
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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."
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
"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
14
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
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 unserved.
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
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.
15
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." 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."
16
THE HARM DONE BY ADVERTISING
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
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
17
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 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
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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
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
19
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
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 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.
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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 is the role of woman as wife and mother
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
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
21
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.
22
SOME ETHICAL AND MORAL PRINCIPLES
The Second Vatican Council declared: "If the media are to be correctly employed, it is
essential that all who use them know the principles of the moral order and apply them
faithfully in this domain." The moral order to which this refers is the order of the law
of human nature, binding upon all because it is "written on their hearts" and embodies
the imperatives of authentic human fulfillment.
For Christians, moreover, the law of human nature has a deeper dimension, a richer
meaning. "Christ is the ?Beginning' who, having taken on human nature, definitively
illumines it in its constitutive elements and in its dynamism of charity towards God
and neighbor." Here we comprehend the deepest significance of human freedom: that
it makes possible an authentic moral response, in light of Jesus Christ, to the call "to
form our conscience, to make it the object of a continuous conversion to what is true
and to what is good."
In this context, the media of social communications have two options, and only two.
Either they help human persons to grow in their understanding and practice of what is
true and good, or they are destructive forces in conflict with human well being. That
is entirely true of advertising.
Against this background, then, we point to this fundamental principle for people
engaged in advertising: advertisers — that is, those who commission, prepare or
disseminate advertising — are morally responsible for what they seek to move people
to do; and this is a responsibility also shared by publishers, broadcasting executives,
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and others in the communications world, as well as by those who give commercial or
political endorsements, to the extent that they are involved in the advertising process.
If an instance of advertising seeks to move people to choose and act rationally in
morally good ways that are of true benefit to themselves and others, persons involved
in it do what is morally good; if it seeks to move people to do evil deeds that are self-
destructive and destructive of authentic community, they do evil.
This applies also to the means and the techniques of advertising: it is morally wrong
to use manipulative, exploitative, corrupt and corrupting methods of persuasion and
motivation. In this regard, we note special problems associated with so-called indirect
advertising that attempts to move people to act in certain ways — for example,
purchase particular products — without their being fully aware that they are being
swayed. The techniques involved here include showing certain products or forms of
behavior in superficially glamorous settings associated with superficially glamorous
people; in extreme cases, it may even involve the use of subliminal messages.
Within this very general framework, we can identify several moral principles that are
particularly relevant to advertising. We shall speak briefly of three: truthfulness, the
dignity of the human person, and social responsibility.
a) Truthfulness in Advertising
Even today, some advertising is simply and deliberately untrue. Generally speaking,
though, the problem of truth in advertising is somewhat more subtle: it is not that
advertising says what is overtly false, but that it can distort the truth by implying
things that are not so or withholding relevant facts. As Pope John Paul II points out,
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on both the individual and social levels, truth and freedom are inseparable; without
truth as the basis, starting point and criterion of discernment, judgment, choice and
action, there can be no authentic exercise of freedom. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church, quoting the Second Vatican Council, insists that the content of
communication be "true and — within the limits set by justice and charity —
complete"; the content should, moreover, be communicated "honestly and properly."
To be sure, advertising, like other forms of expression, has its own conventions and
forms of stylization, and these must be taken into account when discussing
truthfulness. People take for granted some rhetorical and symbolic exaggeration in
advertising; within the limits of recognized and accepted practice, this can be
allowable.
But it is a fundamental principle that advertising may not deliberately seek to deceive,
whether it does that by what it says, by what it implies, or by what it fails to say. "The
proper exercise of the right to information demands that the content of what is
communicated be true and, within the limits set by justice and charity, complete. ...
Included here is the obligation to avoid any manipulation of truth for any reason."
b) The Dignity of the Human Person
There is an "imperative requirement" that advertising "respect the human person, his
rightduty to make a responsible choice, his interior freedom; all these goods would be
violated if man's lower inclinations were to be exploited, or his capacity to reflect and
decide compromised."
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These abuses are not merely hypothetical possibilities but realities in much
advertising today. Advertising can violate the dignity of the human person both
through its content — what is advertised, the manner in which it is advertised — and
through the impact it seeks to make upon its audience. We have spoken already of
such things as appeals to lust, vanity, envy and greed, and of techniques that
manipulate and exploit human weakness. In such circumstances, advertisements
readily become "vehicles of a deformed outlook on life, on the family, on religion and
on morality — an outlook that does not respect the true dignity and destiny of the
human person."
This problem is especially acute where particularly vulnerable groups or classes of
persons are concerned: children and young people, the elderly, the poor, the culturally
disadvantaged.
Much advertising directed at children apparently tries to exploit their credulity and
suggestibility, in the hope that they will put pressure on their parents to buy products
of no real benefit to them. Advertising like this offends against the dignity and rights
of both children and parents; it intrudes upon the parent-child relationship and seeks
to manipulate it to its own base ends. Also, some of the comparatively little
advertising directed specifically to the elderly or culturally disadvantaged seems
designed to play upon their fears so as to persuade them to allocate some of their
limited resources to goods or services of dubious value.
c) Advertising and Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is such a broad concept that we can note here only a few of the
many issues and concerns relevant under this heading to the question of advertising.
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The ecological issue is one. Advertising that fosters a lavish life style which wastes
resources and despoils the environment offends against important ecological
concerns. "In his desire to have and to enjoy rather than to be and grow, man
consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered
way. ... Man thinks that he can make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without
restraint to his will, as though it did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given
purpose, which man can indeed develop but must not betray."
As this suggests, something more fundamental is at issue here: authentic and integral
human development. Advertising that reduces human progress to acquiring material
goods and cultivating a lavish life style expresses a false, destrucôive vision of the
human person harmful to individuals and society alike.
Wheo people fail to practIce "a rigorous respect vor the }oral, cultural and spirit}al
requirements, based on the dignity ov the person and on the propgr identity of each
cïmmunity, beginning wiph dhe`fammly and religious sOcieties," then even materka|
abuîdance and the conveniences that technology makes available "will
prove(unsatisfying and in the efd contemttible." Advertiserw,0like pemple$engaged
in othmr forms of social comeunication, have a serious duty to expsess and foster an
autheftic rision$of èuman developmenô in iôw matezial, celtural and spiritual
dimensions. Communication that meets tHis standard is, among other things, a true
expression of snlidarity. Iodeed, the two things — communication and solidarity —
aze`inseparable, because, as the Catechism of the Catlolic Church points oõt,
solidarity is "a ãonsequence of genuine and right communycation and the free
circulation of ideas that further knowledge and respect for others.b
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS
There is nk doubt thau advertisi>g xas a strong social zesponsibility, inddpendent of
its known commercial responsébility. In a free economy like India, it must be judoed
like any other media beamed to the consumer at large.(Freedmm of expres3ion for
commercial purposes must not be vimwed differently from freedom8gb eppression.
The envirgnment has changed dramatically in the last decaDe. The average Inmian
consumer is todáy more expos%d to the West through travel and the entertainmEnt
media. And this(means greater exposure to their values, lifestyles and sïcial rituals.
Not surprisingly, this has led to the average consumer becoeing more liberal `ld open-
minded. While he may not afopt!many of phose values and28lifesvyles, he has
become more open to accept differing views.
This is reflected in the mix-n-match culture we see around us -- in nond, clothes,
language and even marriages where thmre is a shift froe arranged"marriage!to
arranged loöe mar2iage. With it has come more advertisi~g -, and the consumer
growing more cynical of itó claims and stories.
Even in small towns, consume2s say this about celebrity advertising -- "He has been
paid to say gmod thijgs about the product" and "The proäuct will cosp mose as the
company has to páy for the ádvertising!"
Clearly he has become more advertising savvy. In this gontext, to believe tjat
advertisin' has `n overwhelming power in bringing about social change is tm give it
greater weight than ht fesgrves.
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Advertising i{`jusô on% of the social influånces in a capitalistic economy"like India.
Anä no lass commerciál tèaj the others. Movids, serials, magazines -% play as big or
even bigger volds in shaping social behavyour.
Movie sôars are bigger than ad(models. Not 3urprisingly, movies are a final
destination fOr0all budding models. A rucent world H%alth Organisation survey
shows That 80 per cent of BollYwood movie{ hád tjeir heroes smoking -- a very
unhealthy but strong glamourisation ïf the smoking habit -- stronoer than any brand
advertising. It is s5blimilal yet more powerful!
The social backdrop of most mf thu K-serials are of the repression of women. Though
the women come out winners in the end. And aõdienceÓ accep| this and they garner
high TRPs -- often connecting with the woman protagonisv.
Musia videos like Kanta Laga and Yeh Vada Raha use women purely like sex objects.
And suãh videos are mushrooming by the day29and are beamed by eusic cha.nels
over0and over áge)n.
(And in The name of$glamour, the ave0age Hind) film hero)ne is more scantily
dressed than the vamps of yestepyearó!) Action movies0are replete with stunts that
are very exciting`po the average ciild qnd very dangerous too.
Tèese are however the harbingers kf chcnge, the baromuter of!consumer acceptance
levels and ience0should not29ce ignored. Sm the social re{ponsibility of advertising
needs to be judged in this conteøt rather than in isolation. Thå time hcs come to le| the
Indian consumer decide wHat is good for him. In a democratic¡set up, whure every
individuAl xas a right to vote and in a free economy, where he has a right To choose
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pr/ducts he wands, there is no reason why he should not be allowed to decide what t(e
stretching limit of the social code is in atvertising.
Oves the years¬ the Indian consumer ha{ shown great maturity in accepting and
rejecting communication. In tje early '90sl M R Cogfee advertised 'real pleasure
doesn't bome in minutes' by qhowing explicit sex.
The consumer rejecued$it and the brand sunk. At the same pioe when SubHash"Ghai
[ Images ] re`eased Kh`lnayak, the song, Choli ke peeche kya hai, created a furore
among women's groups, but the avurage viewer acceptel it an spirit and both the
moviu and tha song became a runaway hit. Leô's rerpect the intelligence ov the
consumer and not take on"the rnle of his moral cmnschence.
This does not mean that ôhere is no need to regulate advertising and its`content. In
fact,(advertising is one fraternity that has its independent self regulation body --
ASCI -- which monitors and guides advertisers to remain socially responsible.
However, environmental pressures can make it difficult for even a body like ASCI to
perform independently, open mindedly and fairly. The frame of reference needs to be
recognised and accepted.
Advertising must be truthful. Not misleading or ambiguous or make wrong factual
claims that can get consumers to buy inferior products thinking these products are
delivering more.
Advertising must be sensitive to religious and political sensitivities -- primarily
because India is a religious country with a high religious sensitivity. And
unnecessarily provoking it is not healthy.
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Advertising must not promote undesirable products -- declared illegal by law i.e.
drugs. However, in this context banning of advertising of liquor and cigarettes smacks
of hypocrisy. Anything that can be sold openly should be allowed to be promoted
openly.
If the government does believe in the purquation power of advertising, it is advised to
take out a portion of the funds it annually collects as sales tax and excise duty and
invest it in anti-smoking and anti-drInking campaigns!
Advertising must not promote acceptel social ills -- Saying that 'dowrx is good' or
'it's31good to"have a male child rather than a female cxild' or 'it's hep to ride a bike
wythout a helmet' 3hould be avoided as!part of the!sociel responsibimity of!
advErtising. Bringing an isSue updront as the fairness ad. dkd is not undesirable in
this context.
Finally, regulators and consumer groups must accept that social change is inevitable
and much depictiOn must be seen in the context in which the advertising i{ beamed.
Winds of change are inevitable and trying to slow them down or stop dhem is neivher
advertising's(responsibility nor its capability. A.` in such a situation, the ads
supposedly degrading w/men (liquor, perfuie) and promoti~g bad behaviour amonc
children (soft drinks) iren't doing that. Let thåm pass.
It may always be useful to remember David Ogilvy's famous adage "The consumer is
not a moron, she is your wife". It often appears that advertising agencies respect the
consumer more than the average consumer activist.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Following are the few recommendations for the fair portrayal of genders in Indian
television advertisements for the better impact on society and unfair use of female or
male image just in order to sell the product or service: -
The media need to refrain from presenting women as inferior and exploiting them as
sex objects. On the contrary, the media could be a useful tool to promote a positive
and realistic image of women. All media presentations should be in line with the
demographic context of the community. Gender stereotyping should be eliminated
through an exertion of will and foresight on the part of the media industry, who, for
starters, should also seek to eliminate violent and degrading portrayals of women.
Govt need to formulate ethical standards, based on equality between the sexes, which
could be reflected in all comeunication productions, includiNg32programming and
mddia portrayal.
The lack of specific research on roles portrayal is one of dhe most crétical barriers to
ongoing and effective analysis. Studaes should be funded in order to paise the
awareness about gender-feir kmages in ralation do policy-making. Regional
differences should be identifieä a.t the!implementation of law sèould be based on
cïmparathve 2esearch!in this field.
Wovernments and NGOs hqve to ensure that regulatory mechanisms on media are
guided by the values of gender justice, human rights, sustainab|e devglopment and
respect fr cultural diversity and of culturcl expression,$sexuality and hifestyle.�
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There is a neet explore the€develoðment of Convention on genders and Media which
addresses problems of diversity, human rights and gender issu%s using exis|ing
international conventions and instruments.
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CONCLÕSION
The indéspensable guarantors of ethically correct behavir by the advertising inductry�
are thf well formed and responsible consciences of advertising professionals
themselves: consciences sensitive to their duty not merely to serve the interests of
those who commission and finance their work but also to respect and uphold the
rights and interests of their audiences and to serve the common good.
Many women and men professionally engaged in advertising do have sensitive
consciences, high ethical standards and a strong sense of responsibility. But even for
them external pressures — from the clients who commission their work as well as
from the competitive internal dynamics of their profession — can create powerful
inducements to unethical behavior. That underlines the need for external structures
and systems to support and encourage responsible practice in advertising and to
discourage the irresponsible.
Voluntary ethical codes are one such source of support. These already exist in a
number of places. Welcome as they are, though, they are only as effective as the
willingness of advertisers to comply strictly with them. "It is up to the directors and
managers of the media which carry advertising to make known to the public, to
subscribe to and to apply the codes of professional ethics which already have been
opportunely established so as to have the cooperation of the public in making these
codes still better and in enforcing their observance."
We emphasize the importance of public involvement. Representatives of the public
should participate in the formulation, application and periodic updating of ethical
codes. The public representatives should include ethicists and church people, as well
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as representatives of consumer groups. Individuals do well to organize themselves
into such groups in order to protect their interests in relation to commercial interests.
Public authorities also have a role to play. On the one hand, government should not
seek to control and dictate policy to the advertising industry, any more than to other
sectors of the communications media. On the other hand, the regulation of
advertising$content ind practice, already existing in many ðlaces, can and should
extend beyond banning false advertising, narrkwly defined. "By promulgating laws
and ovårseeang their application, public aõthorities should ensure that ?public
moralaty and social progress are not gravel9 endangered' through misuse ov the
media."
For example, government regulations should address"such auestions as the quantity of
advertising, esðecially in0broadcast media, as well as thm contant ïf advertising
directed at groups particular,y vulnerable to exploitation, such aó ahildren and old
pMople. Political advevtising also seems an appro`riate area for regulation: how much
may(be spent, how and grom whom may money for advertising`be raised, eôc.
The media of .ews and information should make ht a point to keep the public ijformed
about the world of advervising. Considering advertising's social impact, it is
aprropòiate thaô media regularly review and critique the performance of advertisers,
êust as they do other groups whose activities hawe a significant influence on society.
besides using media to evafgalije, the Church for her part needs to grasp(the full
implications`of the observatioN by Pope John Paul: phat media comprise a central
part of that greát modern "Areopagus" where ide!s are shared and attitutes and values
are formed. This pints to a "deeper reality" than simply using media to spread the�
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Gospel message, important as that is. "It is also necessary to integr`te thqt message
into the ?new aulture' created by mod%rn communications" with ids "new ways of
commun)catiog... new languages, new tEchniqqes and!a new psychology."
In light of this insight, it is important that mediq education be part o& pastgral
plánning and a variety of0pastoral and"education`l programs carried on by the
Ahurch, including Catholic schools. This includes education regarding the role of
advertisifg in today's gorld and its relevance to the woro of the Church. Such
education should seek to prepare people to be infgrmed and alert in ôheir approach to
advertising as to other forms of communication. As the Catechism of the Catholic
church points out, "the means of social cnmmunication. ... can give$rise to a certain
pas{ivit9 among users, making Them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or
shown.$Users should practice moderation and discipline in tjeir approach to the mass
media."
In the final analysis, hnwever, where freedom!of speecè and communicatI/n exists, it
is largely up to advertisers themselves to ensure ethically responsible prqcthces in
their profession. Busides avoiding abuses, advertisers shguld also undertake po repair
the harm sometimes done b} advertising8 insofar as that hs possible: for example, by
Publishing cgrrective notices, compensating injured parties, increasing the quantity of
public service advertising, and the like. This question of ?reparations' is a matter on
legitimate involvement not only by indusTry self-regulatory bodies and public interest
'roupr, but also by publis authoritigs.
Where unethical practices Háve"become widespread and entrenched, conscientious
advertisers may be called upon to make significant personal sacrifices to correct them.
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But people who want to do what is morally right must always be ready to suffer loss
and personal injury rather than to do what is wrong. This is a duty for Christians,
followers of Christ, certainly; but not only for them. "In this witness to the
absoluteness of the moral good Christians are not alone: they are supported by the
moral sense present in peoples and by the great religious and sapiential traditions of
East and West."
We do not wish, and certainly we do not expect, to see advertising eliminated from
the contemporary world. Advertising is an important element in today's society,
especially in the functioning of a market economy, which is becoming more and more
widespread.
Moreover, for the reasons and in the ways sketched here, we believe advertising can,
and often does, play a constructive role in economic growth, in the exchange of
information and ideas, and in the fostering of solidarity among individuals and
groups. Yet it also can do, and often does, grave harm to individuals and to the
common good.
0In light of these reflections, therefore, we call upon advertising professionals and
upon all those involved in the process of commissioning and disseminating
advertising to eliminate its socially harmful aspects and observe high ethical standards
in regard to truthfulness, human dignity and social responsibility. In this way, they
will make a special and significant contribution to human progress and to the common
good.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Advertising Management by Batra
Communication Media Yesterday, Today and TomorrowP.N. Malhan
www.economictimes.indiatimes.com
www.news.webindia123.com
www.afaqs.com
www.domain_b.com
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