Code of Ethics R 1 Final2
Code of Ethics R 1 Final2
Code of Ethics R 1 Final2
Preamble
The National Advertising Association recognizes the responsibility of ensuring that the
profession of advertising is held to the highest standard in the way advertisements are created.
The association places great emphasis on portraying the truth not only to our clients, but also
our customers in advertisements. Advertisers are socially responsible of relaying information
about a product through an ad. Truth in advertising is not only a responsibility advertising
professionals take seriously, it is also a federal law. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the
truth in advertising laws. It is important for the claims made by advertisers are truthful
especially when it comes to getting consumers to spend money. An advertisers job is not only
to create a message to get consumers to buy products or services, but to be truthful in the
messaging.
Values
There are many values that advertisers have to take into consideration. The first of
these values are truth, which Merriam Webster defines as a judgment, proposition, or idea that
is true or accepted as true (Truth, 1999). When advertisers are creating an ad for a product any
modifications they have made to the product must be admitted to the public. If the advertisers
dont release the facts, they would be misleading the public. In doing so, advertisers and
companies run the risk of losing the trust in the product and a negative perception of the
company or brand may be created.
In addition to truth, advertisers have a social responsibility to ensure that a message
conveyed through an advertisement does not do any damage to society. Social responsibility
can be defined as the obligation of an organization's management towards the welfare and
interests of the society in which it operates (Social Responsibility, 2007).
Additionally, advertising has to recognize the value of loyalty as it pertains to both the
company the firm represents, but also to the consumer. Loyalty is the measure commitment
based on obligation, or in the consumer preferences, degree of satisfaction (Loyalty, 2001).
In addition to, the previous three values, professionals in the advertising and public
relations business must value independence. This value will ensure that the professions are
accountable for the actions and will exercise objective counsel to clients.
Ethical dilemmas
In advertising, professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas every day. One dilemma
that advertisers face is when they are comparing a companys product to a competitor. How
far can the advertisers go without slandering the name of the other product? One way
advertisers can ensure that they do not cross the line is to ensure that everything said about
the company and its competitor are true. The most recent advertising is the television
commercial that Chevrolet is airing, which askes a small focus group which truck brand had won
awards for horsepower, towing capability, and overall truck of the year. The people in the focus
name all brands, including Chevrolet. The results reveal that Chevrolet had won all 3 categories.
The people in the focus group were giving their opinion, and the awards were given by a third
party. Chevrolet was minimizing its exposure to slander by using third party opinions to prove
the superiority of its product.
Another dilemma that advertisers face is their duty to act socially responsible when
creating advertising campaigns. Advertisers are expected to educate the consumers about the
product and how to use it in the correct way. This issue of social responsibility has been
recently discussed in an article that has been posted on Medical Daily that looks into how
alcohol companies create ads that are misleading by not actively promoting the slogan of drink
responsibly. "The contradiction between appearing to promote responsible drinking and the
actual use of 'drink responsibly' messages to reinforce product promotion suggests that these
messages can be deceptive and misleading (Weller, 2014, para. 3)," said David Jernigan,
director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health. Jernigan co-authored a study that looked into why these campaigns placed
greater emphasis on the drinking part of the slogan than drinking responsibly. The study
analyzed all alcohol ads in U.S. magazines from 2008-2010 and found that 87% of 1,795 ads
used some form of the slogan drink responsibly (Weller, 2014, para. 4). None of the ads that
were analyzed went on to elaborate on what responsibility would look like, either in limiting
personal consumption or drinking weaker alcohol (Weller, 2014, para. 5). Jernigan and his
colleagues found that most of the ads focused on brand and product promotion, which the
researchers recognized that is the sole purpose of an ad.
Though researchers found that the companies can and should do more than place a
simple statement if they want to act socially responsible. The companies should place warnings
about the negative effects of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. Some examples of
warnings that can be placed in an ad are a person is killed in an alcohol-related car accident
every 48 minutes, or that kids who start drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to
become alcoholics than those who dont drink until they hit 21 (Weller, 2014, para. 9). If
alcohol companies are able to incorporate these warnings into their ads, than they are acting
socially responsible by not misleading the public by providing them with the facts about the
excessive consumption of alcohol.
Philosophies
Two philosophical theories that can aide in deciding what is an ethical way to advertise
is Immanuel Kants Categorical Imperative and William Rosss Pluralistic Value. The Categorical
Imperative states that actions should be treated as though they could become universal law,
and humanity should never be treated as a means to an end. The first part of this theory states
that one should keep in mind that if a certain action is committed, it should be viewed as that
act will become acceptable for everyone else to do. With this in mind, if an advertiser decided
to lie about the product, it would become acceptable for everyone to lie. The second part of
the theory states that people are not tools that can be employed in order to achieve what one
wants. An example of this would be if an advertiser produced an ad for a car that was targeted
towards children. This ad treats the children as means to get to the parents so that the child
can influence the purchase of a car.
The second theory that can be used is Rosss Pluralistic Value, which lists the several
concrete duties that determine what we ought to do. The seven duties that Ross lists are
fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, benefice, self-improvement, and not injuring others.
These duties can be helpful for professionals who have many roles when dealing with an ethical
dilemma. An example of using a duty in the advertising world would be the use of deception in
an advertisement. This act violates the duty of fidelity, which requires one to be implicit or
explicit about a promise that has been made. An example of a company not being truthful with
its claim was POM Wonderful. The ads it ran stated its drink helped prevent heart disease and
cancer. The company was not fined but had to stop running the ads. Professionals in the
advertising industry need to be careful when making claims that they do not oversell their
product, they have balance trying to stand out in the consumers mind but also being truthful
and not overstating the products or services benefits
Revision
Twice a year I will review the code and decide if there are any improvements that need
to be made in order to ensure that advertisers are being held to the highest standard. These
changes may be the result of an incident that occurred that brings about an ethical dilemma.
Also, this revision will allow me to ensure that I have been following the code and applying it
correctly in my profession.
Conclusion/Summary
The National Advertising Association and the Federal Trade Commission both expect
advertisers to be truthful in their messaging. There are set standards and laws that apply
wherever an ad appears, whether in newspapers, magazines, online, direct mail, billboards or
transit advertising. The advertising industry knows it is important for them to self-govern and
have a set of well-defined principles by which they conduct their business. The bottom line for
advertisers is to sell a product or service; they do this through their copy which claims benefits
and features and creates a sense of urgency, but they have to balance the sale with keeping
their message truthful.
The balance come from values working professionals are expected to uphold, to be
ethical and tell the truth in advertising. There are times when ethical issues come up and these
are the times when duties should come into play and help guide the decisions that need to be
made when creating an advertisement. These standards help individuals decide their own
actions and help facilitate best practices.
References
Loyalty. 2001. In Businessdictionary.com.
retrieved October 23, 2015, from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/loyalty.html
Social responsibility. 2007. In Businessdictionary.com.
retrieved October 23, 2015, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/socialresponsibility.html
Truth. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com,
Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truth
Weller, C. (2014,September 3). What Does Drink Responsibly Even Mean? Medical Daily
Retrieved November 4, 2015 from www.medicaldaily.com