Ethics and Laws in Advertising
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ethics is a set of moral rules that everyone should follow. And advertising is a way for a seller and a buyer to talk to each other.
- In this case, ethics in advertising means a clear set of rules that dictate how the seller and the buyer should talk to each other.
- The most important thing about the advertising business is that it is honest. There are many good things about advertising, but there are also some things that aren’t right when it comes to advertising.
- Not lying, not making false claims, and not going too far with bad taste are all signs of an ethical ad.
- Ads these days are more dramatic and use a lot of puffing. It looks like the advertisers don’t know what morals and ethics are. They just don’t get it and can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.
- The main goal of advertisers is to boost sales, get more customers, and raise demand for their products by making ads that are well-designed, bright, and fluffy. Their claim is that their product is the best because it is better, cheaper, and has more useful features than the others. But it turns out that most of these ads aren’t true, which is unethical because they trick people. The best example of this type of ad is the one that shows snacks for kids in the evening. They use colouring and glueing to make the product look shiny and appealing to people watching the ad on TV, which makes them want to buy the product right away.
- What advertising is for and how it works are directly related to ethics in advertising.
- Sometimes it’s necessary to exaggerate in the ad to show how useful the product is. For example, an ad for sanitary napkins that shows a napkin getting wet with river water after being dropped in by some girls. So, advertising’s only goal was to tell women about the quality of the product. Of course, every woman knows that this can’t really happen, but the ad was still accepted. This doesn’t prove that the ad was wrong.
- Our morals are also based on what we believe.
- If advertisers make ads with the hope that people will understand, think about, and then act on their ads, then the ads may not be considered unethical because they get good results. But at the same time, advertisers who think they can trick their customers by showing unrealistic things like “just clicking your fingers” will make your home or office fully furnished or “just buying a lottery ticket” will make you a millionaire will fail and be called unethical.
- The Vetican just put out an article saying that ads should follow three moral rules: being honest, being socially responsible, and respecting human dignity.
- Big businesses usually don’t lie because they have to show their points to different groups that oversee ads. People always tell the truth, but not all of it. It’s sometimes better not to tell the whole truth in an ad, but other times it’s better to tell the truth.
- Advertising medicines: These help make people aware of them, but one interesting thing is that they only show what the medicine can cure and never talk about the risks or side effects of taking it.
- Children – Kids are the main people who buy the product and see the ads. They have the power to get people to buy. But advertisers should remember not to use children in their ads if they want to avoid showing them doing things like brushing their teeth, playing with toys, or holding their own milk bottles. This is because no parent would leave their child to do these things alone. It makes more sense to show parents taking part in all the activities or things that are being advertised.
- Alcohol: As of right now, there hasn’t been a liquor ad that shows someone drinking real liquor. Mineral water and sodas with their brand name on them are used in their ads. We call these ads “surrogate ads.” When ads for alcohol are not allowed at all, these kinds of ads are completely unethical. People will still drink alcohol even if there are no ads for it.
- People who smoke cigarettes and other tobacco products should never see ads for them because they cause cancer and other serious health problems. In fact, places like India, Norway, Thailand, Finland, and Singapore already don’t allow these.
- Public service announcements: People agree that these are moral and welcome them. But ads for contraceptive pills and condoms should be limited because they are sometimes unethical and are more likely to lose their morality and decency in places where people don’t know much about them.
- Taking all of these things into account, advertisers should start responsiblely controlling their ads by:
- Companies come up with self-regulatory codes that include moral standards, legal points, and truth.
- Keep an eye on what’s going on and get rid of ads that don’t follow the rules.
- People should know about the company’s self-regulatory codes.
- Pay attention to what people are saying about the ads for products.
- Keep the whole company and system open and honest.
- If you follow all of these steps, the company will be responsible for everything it does, which means it will be less likely to be criticised or inspected by a government agency.
will help customers trust the business and its products