All about Boundaries and Responsibilities

By Xiyuan Liu
xl119608@ohio.edu

Just like the author said, Advertising is like a first date. You don’t give out a false identity, but simply disclosing all your flaws and realness is not a smart decision either. In fact, advertising, although builds on the product and life experience, sometimes, is determined to have surrealistic effects and results. Clients definitely don’t want their products or services to be as dull as every day’s routines of life, and instead, they want sparkles, desires, cravings and even craziness. Therefore, advertising people face ethical choices every single day, whether in the process of generating a creative idea, or in the final execution and retouch, people in this industry face an endless dilemma of balancing the surrealistic and the true part.

Personally, I feel today’s media environment and the sophistication level of audience have already allowed much freedom for advertising. People are no longer surprised or feel disguised when they find out that there’s no real shrimp in your noodles as drawn on the package, and your skin doesn’t really look younger when you apply some particular beauty products who claim to have 100% satisfaction. People now have already given a lot of tolerance to advertising. They know the tricks, and they don’t expect advertisers to be like journalists. Sometimes they even understand that good ideas may require something flattery and exaggerated. However, that doesn’t mean advertising, as a way to talk to thousands and even millions targets at one time, is free to go wherever it wants, or free to create any false advertising. As it is a mean to change people’s perceptions and behaviors, advertisers should absolutely follow some ethical codes.

One responsibility of Advertising industry to the society is well illustrated in the last article “Non-alcoholic Beer instead of Juice Boxes”. Kids, when receiving hundreds of materialistic messages from TV and other mediums every day are vulnerable. Advertising can one of the a few things that they are exposed to everyday, and it can change their whole values and self-esteem! They listen to what advertising may say and take it seriously. Imagining a 13-year-old teenage girl hears the slogan “You will never be popular unless you use XXX’s hair spray”, what do you think she will think of, and what actions will that leads to. When it comes to issues like this, the ethical codes of advertising companies are just the treasure and life-saver of the industry.

At last, I want to show some false advertising, and just by looking at it can we realize the important of the ethics in the industry wandering in the middle of truth, lies and advertising.