SRGG

TH
7 WEEK – ETHICAL ISSUES & PROBLEMS & THE CORPORATE WORLD
(THE MORALITY OF ADVERTISING)

ADVERTISING
 Plays a very significant role in marketing goods and services. Without advertising, the consumers
would not be aware of the presence of diverse products and services available in the market.
Sometimes, even the mere presence of advertising can sell a product due to consumer
perception that a heavily advertised product is a product of “good value.”

ADVERTISING, defined
 Philip Kotler defines it as “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas,
goods or services by an identified sponsor.”
 Wells, Burnett and Moriarty, likewise defined advertising as “paid, non-personal communication
from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.”

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF ADVERTISING

 To inform potential buyers of the availability of a certain product by providing relevant
information on its uses, benefits and how it might serve the needs and wants of individuals.

 The use of advertising today has not been serving its intended purpose since very little
information is conveyed to consumers and more often the information is not even
useful. Advertising is part of the selling process and its goal is to persuade consumers to
buy the products being advertised. The economic system is characterized by high
degrees of business competition where every producer would want to have a piece of
the consumer’s demand; as a result, advertisements typically end making
misrepresentations or false claims.

 From the point of morality, advertising in itself is not bad or immoral since it helps
achieve the goals of both the seller and buyer. It only becomes immoral when, in the
attempt to persuade consumers, the advertisements become deceptive, misleading, and
manipulative. Since the primary function of advertising is to sell goods, its purpose
should not be limited to supplying consumers with appropriate information but it should
also educate the public or mold the public’s opinion in choosing products that they need
and not become manipulated in buying what they do not need.

 There is only one criterion in evaluating the morality of advertising, and that is “to tell
truth.” An advertisement that conveys truthful information is morally permissible. If an
advertisement contains false statements and lies, then it is said to be immoral.
 Advertising becomes unethical when the advertisement becomes:
1. Misleading – do not misrepresent, do not make false claims but it makes claims in
such a way that a normal person looking at it comes up with the wrong conclusion.
2. Deceptive – makes a false statement or misrepresent the product, e.g. , the picture
presented in the advertisement is different from the actual product;
 Deceptions may occur not only through sentences or propositions but also
through pictures, individual words, or through certain combinations of
objects which can deceive the eye and mind.
 Semantics in advertising is also allowed in some conditions to allow certain
leeway in some products. In the case of cosmetics, since it is considered as
luxury items, consumers expect various cosmetics to be packaged in
attractive bottles, boxes or containers for aesthetic purposes. This is also
true with shampoo, hair conditioners, and lotions. Using these products
does not guarantee that an ordinary person will look like the models
pictured in the ads. Most people understand the semantics in advertising
and do not take the implied claims of the products literally.
 Another deceptive technique in advertising is ambiguity. When ads are
ambiguous, they are considered deceptive. The use of weasel words is
often complementary to ambiguity in advertising. Weasel words are used to
avoid or recoil from a direct or straightforward statement. Example: the
word “help” which means to aid or assist. According to one author, the
word help has been generally used to say something that couldn’t be said.
We are usually accustomed to ads that contain phrases like: helps fight,
helps prevent, helps stop, helps you feel, helps overcome, helps you look.
Other commonly used weasel words are: like, virtual or virtually, can be, up
to, as much as, and many other words that are used to imply what can’t be
said.
 Consumers might also be misled through exaggeration. Exaggeration occurs
when advertisements tend to make false claims of the benefits of the goods
or services which is actually unsupported by valid evidence. Ex: claims that a
pain reliever provides “extra pain relief” or is “50 percent stronger than
aspirin”.
 Advertisers play on several different tactics to get people interested in their
products. There are some advertisements that are directed at arousing
human emotional needs rather than reason. This is one area in advertising
that presents a serious moral concern. Some of the psychological appeals
that advertisers use to motivate people to buy products are: Power,
prestige, personal enjoyment, masculinity, femininity, curiosity, imitation,
acceptance, approval, self-esteem, self-preservation, altruism, and the most
pervasive of all are sexual pitches.
 3. Manipulative or Coercive – manipulative advertisement uses trickery or by devious
or insidious means. Coercive advertisement involves the use of force or threat,
either physical or psychological.

ADS DIRECTED AT CHILDREN

 Most advertisers have recognized that advertising to children is effective and eventually became
a big business recently. Ads are reaching children through new media technologies and even in
schools – with corporate-sponsored educational materials and product placements in students’
textbooks. The aim of advertisers is for the children to pester their parents to buy things for
them. Young children are naïve and gullible and are particularly vulnerable to enticements made
by advertisements.

PHILIPPINE LAWS ON ADVERTISING

CONSUMENT ACT OF THE PHILIPPINES (R.A. 7394)

 Article 108 of the Act declares that “The State shall protect the consumers from misleading
advertisements and fraudulent sales promotion practices.” The Department of Trade and
Industry is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Act. With respect to food, drugs,
cosmetics, devices and hazardous substances, the Department of Health is the agency that
oversees these products.