What makes advertising ethical? There is no clear cut definition.
At this symposium, moderator Matt Cabot brought up four commercial examples and questioned their ethics. The first one was about a stoner "loaded" on jack in the box, then a pharmaceutical commercial selling depression medication, followed by a Superbowl commercial using sex to sell Mercedes, and a Groupon commercial making an gruesome reference to Tibet. What makes these ethically questionable? It's not like these types of advertisements are new to America. If anything, these types of advertisements have been embedded into our society and can be considered normal.
John De la Cruz brought up the point that "advertisers have the responsibility to behave ethically". I don't believe that we should question what type of advertising is ethical and how ethical advertisers are being, but rather question whether advertising as a whole is ethical.
Micheal Llewellyn-Williams said you should never be afraid of advertising, if somebody wants to part with their money it's their choice. They can tune out, it's background noise. They could say, "thanks for letting me know about your product but it's my decision".
And I couldn't disagree with this statement any more than I already do.
Advertising is everywhere, it may seem like background noise, but it's not. It's hardwired into our lifestyle and our consumer culture. "These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important." Exposure to this media is what makes up what our culture values today whether we realize it or not.
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