Where to Draw the Line in Ethical Advertising?

Consumerism has become such an everyday part of American life, I think a lot of people do not even take notice of the substantial number of advertisements that are thrown in their face each day. Having taken classes in marketing and psychology in both highschool and college I have seen a glimpse into to the effort and money that companies put towards their advertising, but I do not think majority of the people who these advertisements reach have any idea to what extent they are potentially being manipulated. Especially as technology continues to advance, the resources put towards advertising will only increase, and thus so will their impact on society. This in turn brings a larger scale issue to light; is that impact on society good or bad, and are the methods and intentions used to create these advertisements ethical? When corporate America wields the ability to increase their profits by creating ads that have the capability to manipulate viewers to subconsciously want to purchase things they otherwise would not have, is that really ethical?

When watching the movie “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” in my Leadership and Law class, I began to think about my own relationship with advertising. The movie followed a man creating a movie that was entirely funded by brand endorsements, and we were able to see how multiple companies influence their consumers through extremely strategic branding. One major problem he faced dealt with contractual law when he started to see the demands these companies had that he agreed to in signing contracts with them. His goal was to expose the world of advertising, but each brand was very strict on how their products were allowed to be depicted. This branding strategy, your feelings and moods these companies are trying to invoke when you think of their products, is the psychological manipulation they face scrutiny for.

With that being said, whether your stance on the matter is that it is ethical or not, who is to step and tell these billion dollar corporations how they can and can not advertise? The government who benefits from a stimulated economy? The marketing team that develops these ads and gets a large bonus everytime they create an advertisement that boosts sales of a product? Consumers who do not even realize how they are being exploited?

I believe the only way to have a healthy relationship with advertising today is by being educated and aware of how advertisements can affect you. We are constantly being bombarded with advertising and even if people think they have a grasp on ignoring them there is no way someone can ignore every single advertisement and desire to buy a product. There is always bound to be some type of impact and without having the knowledge of what that impact really means, the impact will only be greater.

Although advertisements have been around long before I was, growing up in the twenty-first century surrounded by technology means that advertisements have been able to strengthen their impact on children, just like myself. I can recall a time when I was about five and after watching a stream of Betty Crocker cooking commercials on tv between cartoons I grabbed the house phone, called the number on the screen, and ordered over a hundred dollars worth of cake pans. Looking back on the instance I think it's safe to say my whole family can now laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, but this silly example actually demonstrates how advertising companies have been able to infiltrate the minds of children. If LEGO, for example, can create an advertisement that appeals to children so much that they will throw a temper tantrum in stores when their parents will not let them get it, odds are more than a handful of those parents will give up eventually and say “just get it,” increasing LEGO’s sales. From the company’s standpoint, they had a successful marketing campaign; however, from an ethical standpoint, they targeted children and despite children not having purchasing power, they have a great deal of influence over their parents who do have purchasing power. This again raises the question of how ethical is it to target children who have absolutely no way to stop their intake of ads and thus are the most susceptible in society to be influenced?

In my opinion, targeting children in a way that can potentially be harmful to them for the reason to positively impact a company’s own profits is just another example of preying on the weak and defenseless. But I also do not think companies will stop unless they are forced to. An example would be the government regulating tobacco product commercials. This puts all of the work into the hands of parents. On one hand, parents who like to be in complete control of what their children are exposed to have that ability to censor their digital use, but parents who do not have the time, effort, or desire to censor their children have to be worried about how their kids are being influenced which will also influence themselves.