Effectiveness of Ethical Codes

Amanda Ehrmantraut
ae513115@ohio.edu

Ethics in public relations and advertising are vastly important, but also complex. Organizations like the American Advertising Federation and the Public Relations Society of America have attempted to create codes that dictate what is right and what is wrong for people in these professions, but by nature they are so abstract that it is difficult to strictly enforce these rules. Rather than rules, in fact, they are more like guidelines— of course, we all know that honesty is important, but loyalty, fairness and conflicts of interest are a little less concrete. When they say to “act in the best interest” of the client or the public, what exactly does that mean?

PRSA’s code of ethics first lays out the professional values that public relations professionals should uphold: advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty and fairness. These are ethics that most people in general view as important in their daily life, professionally or otherwise. The descriptions for each of these words go into depth about how to incorporate them into the work environment. They mostly emphasize taking responsibility for your actions and dealing fairly and faithfully with each client. These values all seem like common sense, but in practice, the waters are muddied.

AAF’s code of ethics is based on a set of nine principles. It seems that one of the most vital and repeatedly restated values is transparency in all its different forms. Advertisers should be transparent with their clients and in the goals of their media, as well as with the benefits or endorsements received from their media. Again, they are fairly common-sense guidelines, but they also depend on the judgment of each individual.

Source: www.rjionline.org

When any organization or entity can create and release messages that the consumer directly receives, there is a lot at risk, and I do not think the ambiguity of these guidelines helps that cause. However, in the case of a topic as subjective as ethics, it is difficult to form stricter rules and laws. 

I think it is up to each individual company or firm to set more concrete, easily defined standards for their employees. These overarching codes of ethics are broad, but they are more of a baseline than a final word. Rather than public relations professionals directly following the codes, companies should use them as an outline to build their own. Because of this, I would say that they probably work and are being followed, but again, I think that is more on a company basis than an individual level.

Consumers’ trust in the media has declined in recent years; that is no secret. This decreases the effectiveness of advertising as a whole and must be remedied. However, I do not think codes of ethics are the only way to do this. If a public relations or advertising professional wishes to display unethical behaviors, guidelines will not fix that. There needs to be a better method for determining ethical standards and stricter punishments for those who do not.