Diana Wiebe
Advertising is an extremely powerful tool that can be used
for both good and bad. The series Mad Men
is a perfect description of how advertising is highly influential and that
sometimes advertisers use fraud, manipulation, and deception to sway the
public’s opinion. As Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) said, “Everybody else’s
tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strikes’ is toasted.” He was referring to his
cigarette and tobacco client in the show, and uses the powerful tool of
omission when suggesting that their product doesn’t kill, it’s just toasted.
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| Image taken from: http://peterlevitan.com/smart-2014-advertising-quote-from-mad-men-4128/ |
When making ethical decisions in advertising, it’s important
to be aware of three main problems that can arise. Those three main issues are
fraudulent information, disrespectful and deceptive images, and manipulation of
the youngest members of our population.
FRAUD
It is a sad fact that people in the advertising industry
often do not try their hardest to stop fraudulent information from getting out
to the public. According to Alex Kantrowitz, who wrote Digital Ad Fraud Is Rampant: Here's Why So Little Has Been Done About It, “Purging fraudulent
impressions from the system would mean higher media prices and lower
performance (though more accurate).” It is simply not in the best interest of
advertisers and their clients to remove fraudulent information so very few of
them do. One man offers a suggestion which is to start with the buyers asking
questions from the suppliers of the ads. Curt Hecht, global chief revenue
officer at the Weather Company, told Kantrowitz that they should ask, “How are
the ads procured? Where are they placed? Where will they run? Where won't they
run? Who are the different partners? And what do they do?” By simply asking a
few questions, fraudulent information could be stopped.
DISRESPECT AND DECEPTION
Another huge problem advertisers must be wary of is
producing content that is in poor taste and deceptive to who views the
information. A sad case comes from an advertisement for a dating site on
Facebook that used a deceased Canadian girl’s photo. The use of her
images sparked major controversy because she had been the victim of rape and
cyber-bullying and had committed suicide as a result. Simon Dumenco wrote a piece
entitled Definitely 'The Worst Facebook Ad Ever' and talks about how
advertisers are not being careful enough with where images originate. “The
presumably clueless use of Rehtaeh Parsons' photos by such a fly-by-night
operation underscores the hazards of Facebook's self-serve advertising
business, which assumes a certain level of competence among its users that was
obviously lacking in this case,” he says. The only solution to this problem is
to closely monitor where images come from and to check on self-serve
advertising more in depth as well.
MANIPULATION
Perhaps one of the longest running
issues with advertising is how it affects the youngest members of
society-children. Matthew McPartland says in Why We Could be Hurting Children’sFutures: The Ethics of Advertising to Children that, “The amount of media
children are exposed to is outrageous. What effect does this have on children?
Are all advertising damaging to children? Alcohol, tobacco, and food have
clearly made an impact on society, especially with children.” Personally, I
know that my girl friends and I were affected by advertisements that tell us
exactly how we should act and dress, and how much we should weigh. A majority
of parents monitor what their children view, but it is also the advertiser’s
job to promote healthy mental and physical habits. They should encourage
children to be who they want to be, rather than what the advertiser’s think
they should be.
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| Image taken from: http://www.fastcocreate.com/3027746/infographic-a-concise-compendium-of-don-drapers-creative-advice |
CONCLUSIONS
Though we live in a world where it can
be extremely difficult to stop certain images and messages from getting out,
advertisers must still strive for positive, accurate, and respectful content. If
all advertisers behaved like Don Draper, the public would receive a lot of
information that is harmful to them. Advertisers have an ethical duty to
protect anyone who views their ad-whether it be the youngest member of society
or the oldest.
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