Ethics in Advertising

a) Advocacy: It refers to what an advertisement is trying to say and whether this is objective or neutral. b) Accuracy: It refers to whether the claim made by the company is true and verifiable. c) Acquisitiveness: It refers to whether the advertisement is promoting materialism. In advertising ethical issues are broadly divided into two categories, ie, ethical dilemma and ethical lapse. The first is ethical dilemma that arises when the pros and cons regarding a particular issue are even, where ethics are concerned – for example, the use of advertorials to promote a company’s products or services. The advertorial attracts readers’ attention and the ad copy has a bigger impact on the minds of the reader than an ordinary advertisement. The appearance or layout of an advertorial is similar to that of magazine or newspaper editorials and readers are beguiled into thinking that they are reading an article. An ethical lapse occurs when there is violation or deviation from standards knowingly – for example, conveying an inaccurate message while being well aware that it is wrong. For example, Vim Ultra dishwash powder claimed that it contained pure lemon juice, but the laboratory test proved that the claim was false. There are three parameters that help in deciding whether an advertisement is ethical or not: