Ethical Issues Influencing Advertising

Essay by kelvinmapfumoCollege, UndergraduateA, October 2011

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�Marketing assignment question one.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how an organisation can address the legal and ethical issues that mitigate the advantages of advertising. The essay shall talk about legal issues then the ethical issues.

Businesses are in the game to make money and advertising can go a long way towards selling a particular product. But as with many human endeavours, advertising can often be harmful as well as helpful and the lines between the two are harder to determine than may first appear. Adhering to an ethical advertising principle means paying close attention to several key distinctions.

Definition of key terms

Legal issues are those issues which have something to do with the law. Truth in advertising. According to the Federal Trade Commission, "advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive, advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims and advertisements cannot be unfair''. According to advertising law, an advertisement is considered deceptive if it contains a statement or omits information that "is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances; and is, 'material', that is, important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product."

Essentially, the law states that your advertising cannot be misleading. You have to tell the truth, or clearly label your adverts so that no reasonable person could mistake your intent. Advertisers and their advertising agencies need to have a reasonable basis for advertising claims before they are published.

Ethics can defined as the study of what is right and wrong in human behaviour.

Advertising - According to the Advertising Association advertising can be defined as the means of making known in order to sell goods or services. Advertising can be defined as paid non personal communication from an identified sponsor to persuade or influence an audience. From a...