Keeping Advertising Ethical

Madison Doyle 

madisonkdoyle@gmail.com

With all the content that is constantly being created for different stories and brands, it is often hard to catch someone's attention. Never before did we think that marketing would turn into what it has. Target consumers has almost become a science. There are many ways that you can attract someone and have them buy into your idea. While doing this it is important that the content being put out is ethical. There are codes that serve as guidelines to keeping your brand ethical. 

Another important point to remember is that advertising has become crucial to the success of a brand. Not only does it allow for companies to get their word out about a certain story or product but it allows companies make a name for themselves. MarTech Today puts it as, "It's about being good stewards of the customer experience." Which I think is a great way of putting it. You should request the public enough to give them a great experience. I think that most commonly people look at advertising as a way to sell something. Ultimately, advertising creates brand awareness for the public. 

It is necessary to make sure that content included on the advertisement is accurate. The information should not mislead the public. This will cause for there to be a lose of trust between the public and the source. Fact check any information that is included in the in content as this will allow for the best result for the consumer. Ultimately the goal should be to help the public live a better life. Advertisements should be informative. 

All of the ideas of making sure advertising is ethical stem from a time when advertising was not ethical. There are many advertisements that are from years ago that show unethical language for any brand. Many of the ads also include racism. Ads also include unacceptable ways of referring to women. While this was acceptable in that time they are no longer acceptable. If these different ways of language were used in today's advertisement, consumers would no longer purchase from that specific brand. They would also not purchase from any brand that is owned or associated with the offensive advertisements. 

Pictures source: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sophie-adams/ethical-concerns-around-advertising/

 The fact that this was allowed is absolutely appalling. I understand this is the extreme, but it is still an ethical issue. Other ethical issues could include marketing directly to children. Children are the most impressionable individuals that can be targeted. A study done by The American Psychological Association shows that children view more than 40,000 commercials every year. This has been a dramatic increase since the 1970s. Stereotyping is often found in marketing strategies. While the company could be trying to use their target audience it could come across as stereotyping. 

The Ethics Behind Sex Appealing Advertisements

Jack Demmler

jd050918@ohio.edu

 

In a fast-paced world, the attention span of the average human is very short. Advertisers have a small window to work with in order to get the viewers attention and inform the viewer about the product without losing the interest of the viewer. 

In order to do this, agencies often use unethical methods in order to achieve this goal. In order to make an accurate claim as to what is ethical or unethical advertising, we must define what makes an advertisement ethical or unethical. Under the FTC law regarding truth in advertising, "Claims in advertisements must be truthful, cannot be deceptive or unfair and must be evidence based." According to the article What is the Difference Between Unethical and Ethical Advertising, Nick LaMarco states that "Ethical advertising is all about knowing the truth of your product/service without having to lie."

One of the most notable forms of unethical advertising is the use of sex appeal. It is widely known that sex does sell. It seems more and more companies tend to use some form of sexual appeal when advertising their product.The reason companies use sex in advertising is because it captures the attention of the audience quickly. 

Picture source: https://awario.com/blog/does-sex-sell-advertising/

For example, Hardys and Carl's Jr showed an advertisement for their mile high bacon thick-burger by showing a female on a plane asking a man sitting next to her if he wanted to join the mile high club and then they proceed to eat the burger. 

Another example came during Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 when Carl's Jr was advertising their "All Natural Burger." In this advertisement, Charlotte McKinney is shown win a food market with the her private parts being covered. She states "I love going all natural...Nothing between me and my all natural, juicy, 100% grass-fed beef." 

In the examples listed, the advertisements present an ethical gray area because neither ad lies about the product. However, it can distract the audience from the actual purpose of the advertisement. 

 However, with the constant use of sex in advertising, it is important to ask whether it is ethical to use sex in order to sell a product. A main reason sex appeal is considered unethical in advertising is because it distracts the viewer from the product itself. The use of sex in a commercial can cause the viewer to link the product to sex even if the two are totally separate. While the advertisement does not necessarily lie about the product nor do they indicate that the product and sex are in any way connected, the use of sex in advertising can ultimately deceive the viewer into buying the product. Being deceptive is against the FTC law in regards to truth in advertising.

Advertising in a Digital World

Jorja Butt

jorjabutt14@gmail.com

 

Marketing and advertising agencies have created a system where they are able to target specific audiences and create content that they know will attract more views. Advertisements are everywhere and most of the time, they have been tailored to be seen by a specific audience. While these ads may only be a 15 seconds long video, the viewers have unconscious reactions that affect their everyday life. 

While social media is free, advertisers are paying for users attention and a platform to debut their ads. Most social media platforms have created algorithms that are specific to each individual user and tracks their digital footprint. While each platform has a different algorithm, they all do similar tasks. The Digital Marketing Institute provided a small insight into what each platform's algorithm's main goal is for their users and how it affects what they see on their timelines. Facebook's algorithm is focused on showing their users the posts made by family and friends, but also allows advertisers the opportunity to showcase their ads at a price. "Paid content is ranked separately but still revolves around engagement, customer response, and relevance to the subject matter," the Digital Marketing Institute reported. 

Picture source: JanMar Agency

This new way of advertising on social media has given marketing agencies the opportunity to expand their audiences and gain more traction for consumers to buy their products, but how does it affect consumer's personally?

Consumer behavior is an important factor that marketing agencies look at in order to find the best way to advertise their products and encourage viewers to buy into them. Advertisers create a positive experience revolving around their product to encourage viewers to buy them because of how likable the product is to other people. A Psychology Today article revealed that even if viewers aren't paying attention to the advertisements, they are still affected by them. An experiment was conducted that appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research that showed that an advertisement that connected the product to other likable experiences, made for more consumers to buy that product. "These results suggest that the most powerful effect of advertising is just to create a good feeling about a product by surrounding it with other things that you like," the Psychology Today article revealed. In order to promote positive feelings for one the advertised product, it must resonate with the viewer.

Advertising is everywhere. Whether viewers are paying attention to it or not, those ads play a key role in the decisions that are made on a day-to-day basis and are tailored to their emotions. It is important to look around and realize that those advertisements play a bigger role in our lives than we may have thought.

Advertising and Ethics: Targeting Children

Liam Cunningham

lc218118@ohio.edu 

 

We live in a world where we are constantly being exposed to advertising at the tip of our fingers. Wherever you live, you see advertising in several ways: radio, TV, newspaper, billboards and social media. It is unavoidable and omnipresent everywhere we look. 

At a young age we are altered by advertising, it is unlikely that young children will understand the intention but it is still present. According to the American Psychological Association, "mature comprehension of advertising occurs no earlier than age 7-8 years on average." But how do these major companies target children's minds? 

Picture source: The Better Mom 

One of the most popular influencers target schools. This is frightening because advertising messages have invaded where a child's mind is the most open. At all academic levels, students are exposed to a variety form of advertising.

Secondly, major companies target young children watching the television. The University of Michigan Medicine states that, "On average, children ages 2-5 spend 32 hours a week in front of a TV - watching television. Kids ages 6-11 spend about 28 hours a week in front of the TV." After reviewing this statement, it was identified that children watch more ads than adults. Children view more than 40,000 commercials each year. 

Thirdly, companies target grocery stores for advertising. Planograms are placed in grocery stores, which are a useful marketing technique to increase sales. For example, by placing the most eye-catching, bright box at eye level for children. This box is placed at about three feet high, to be reachable to young consumers.

Lastly, advertising on other screens seems to be targeted at children. Children now have access at their fingertips to mobile phones, tablets and computers. These devices are a hot spot for target marketing. Psychology Today, mentions that highly active social media platforms expose children to the latest advertisements available. 

What are ways to limit advertising to children? Limiting the exposure to screen-based advertising. Choosing educational public television is beneficial to a young child. Lastly, educating a child about basic advertising strategies. This allows a child to understand the point behind advertising. 

In conclusion, the environment of advertising is rapidly expanding. Children are being exposed to advertising in ways that we have never seen before. Without understanding the effects ads have on the young mind, allows the risk of harmful influences to develop .

Advertising In Disguise?

Vince Damico

vd058216@ohio.edu

 

Advertising is everywhere in modern times. From traditional advertisements like commercials, billboards, and ads on the side of your screen all the way up through product placement and native advertising; it's impossible to truly avoid advertising. According to Forbes, in 2017 most Americans were exposed to somewhere between four thousand and ten thousand ads a day. As time passes the advertising industry keeps growing more lucrative. Statista reports that, Facebook made $69.7 billion in advertising revenue in 2019, a new record year for the company. 

Product placement is when specific products or brands are incorporated into a different type of media, such as television or film, with the intent of promoting said product or brand. Examples of product placement would be the brand of car the main character drives or the brand of clothes the main character wears. Not all product placement is that subtle, however. If one is watching a movie or show and a character is shown sipping a Coca Cola, for instance, that's product placement as well.

Placing these products or brands in our media makes viewers more likely to have a higher opinion of these brands if they like what they are watching. In the 1955 film, Rebels Without a Cause, James Dean is shown using an Ace Comb, and suddenly many teenage boys wanted to own an Ace Comb too. This results from the brain associating the Ace comb with being cool and fitting in with the popular crowd. The "James-Dean-uses-this-comb-so-I-should-too" mentality.

James Dean in Rebels Without a Cause (Picture source: ACE)

Children are especially affected by product placement. A study conducted by a Stanford professor found children believed a meal set on a McDonald's wrapper was tastier than the exact same meal not placed on a McDonald's wrapper. In this example, the McDonald's advertising has created the belief for these children that the food from their restaurants will always be tasty, creating a recurring customer for years and years to come. 

Native advertising is a type of ad that matches the platform it's being viewed on, oftentimes appearing as an article or something similar. While the purpose of native advertising is not to fool people, per se, it can happen if one isn't aware they're viewing an advertisement. Journalist's core value of transparency dictates that native advertisement feature language like "include paid-promotion", "contains sponsored content", or something likewise to bring awareness to the fact that one is viewing an advertisement. Be aware of hidden advertising, it closer than you may think.

New Marketing to Consumers Personal Emotions

Jena Catalano 

jc854716@ohio.edu 

 

Marketing agencies and advertising moguls are trying to form a deeper connection with their ideal target markets. Random advertising is no longer the case on the constant social media platforms and the world of digital content. Companies are trying to precisely place ads in the right spot for all of their users based on previous google searches and what they seem to be interested in their digital algorithms. However, digital algorithms and recent history are no longer the only cases to reach ideal markets. Companies are also using their consumers' emotions and mood to sell their products. 

The hypothesis of agencies using moods and emotions to sell products has been broadly tested. The effectiveness of psychographic targeting is being used by an increasing number of media and advertising companies. Emily Bell reports that last year the New York Times launched Project Feels, a departure for a media brand that prides itself on its emotional detachment, where the ads you are shown correspond to the emotion you feel. She continues to explain that there actually are mountains of science behind advertising like this. The emotions in reading articles were crowdsourced to build predictive algorithms and the New York Times data science team tested the outcome by dropping advertising that fitted the mood into the revenant article. The New York Times is just one of many who are currently looking at emotions to hook their target markets. 

 

Picture source: Smart 

 

There are many articles explaining how company's should move into emotional marketing to really target their audience. According to Allie Decker for HubSpot, first impressions of humans form in a matter of seconds and its the same for a product or brand, and marketing emotion can help shape those impressions. Studies show that people rely on emotions, rather than information, to make decisions. According to the Advertising Research Foundation, 'likeability' is the measure that best predicts whether an advertisement will increase a brand's sales. Emotions are one reason why we gravitate toward brand name products over generics- big brands pump a steady stream of advertising dollars into branding initiatives. Positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments. 

Emotional responses in marketing strongly influence a consumer's intent and decision to buy more than the content of an ad or marketing material. Decker continues to explain that in order to successfully put emotion in marketing, companies must know their audience and know which emotions would resonate most, then align them with their marketing goals and the emotional marketing will be effective.  

Advertising and Ethics

Emilee Caudill

ec217717@ohio.edu

 

In the fast paced world we live in today, it takes a lot to catch someone's attention and even more to get someone interested in consuming a product. With all the different options in the world at everyone's fingertips, people need to be convinced of something's value before consuming it which is why advertising is essential.

Image from landerapp.com

How is Advertising Used

Advertising is present almost everywhere we look, despite the fact that we don't often realize it. It is often present in print media, social media, and obviously commercials.

Advertising has many uses besides just the typical selling of products, it can be found in political campaigns, healthcare and more. With so many different platforms to reach people on, there is really no way to avoid the effects of advertising.

Is Advertising Ethical

Despite how common advertising is, whether or not it is ethical is questionable. Advertising can be invasive, false and very misleading to consumers.

Advertising directly affects the brain and no matter the person, the effects that come from seeing an ad is almost unavoidable. In an NPR article discussing an experiment done on advertising it says, "This is her brain activity right now, real time," Kishiyama says. "When you're watching ads, and so forth, you're kind of passively watching it, but your brain is responding to it. So it's not always conscious."

A big issue with ads on social media is where the content is coming from. Ads featured on platforms like twitter, Instagram and Facebook from companies that aren't reputable sometimes feature stolen pictures and ideas.

Stolen images have become a major issue especially in Facebook advertising. A recent CNN article featured a story of this type of theft. The article says, "A California family says their identities were stolen and used in a Facebook ad for a company selling a protective mask that claimed to have saved the youngest son in a family of five from Covid-19."

What can we do

The world of advertising is thriving now more than ever and it's safe to say it isn't going anywhere, but there are a few things everyone can do to not fall victim to the less ethical effects of advertising.

It is important to fact check, even if the information seems legitimate. If the ad is coming from a source like Facebook, do more research.

Be aware of the advertising around you. Pay attention to what catches your attention and sticks in your head.

There is no way to avoid advertising but it does help to be educated on it.