6 Ethics in Advertising
To begin our lesson on advertising ethics, let’s talk about weasels.
Study the following presentation slides by using the forward button or clicking on sections of the control bar.
Weasel words are a prime example of advertising hype. View the brief video “Ad Hype: True or False?” from the Federal Trade Commission.
AN UNDERAGE AUDIENCE
An interesting case study for advertising law and ethics involves Juul, a company that makes electronic cigarettes. In 2020, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit alleging that the company had bought online advertisements on websites for Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Seventeen magazine. This lawsuit came amid other accusations that the company targeted underage customers beginning around 2015. Read this NBC news article published shortly after the Massachusetts lawsuit was filed:
• Juul bought ad space on kids’ websites, including Cartoon Network, lawsuit alleges – NBC News
As an addendum to this case study, in 2022 Juul settled a multistate youth vaping inquiry for $438.5 million.
WHO BENEFITS?
As you can see from the examples and videos thus far in the lesson, a multitude of ethical concerns are connected to advertising.
Advertisements can persuade consumers to change attitudes and/or purchase products. An ethical, well-planned ad should benefit some members of an audience. Sometimes, however, the lure of financial gain or improved reputation can lead advertisers to unethical strategies.
The following video, created by Professor Mark Grabowski of Adelphi University in New York, provides an overview of ethical issues in advertising. Grabowski suggests that as an advertising professional, “You’re responsible not just for what you sell, but how you sell it.”
In the conclusion, Grabowski argues that “it’s largely up to advertisers themselves to ensure ethically responsible practices in their profession.”
To help you understand problematic, irresponsible advertising, you can study the following list of examples published in 2020 by USA Today.
• Misleading marketing: Cheerios, 5-Hour Energy drink among products tagged with outrageous claims – USA Today
PROFESSIONAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
Although some media professionals prefer to keep advertising in a separate category from journalism, the first principle of the Institute for Advertising Ethics says, “Advertising, public relations, marketing communications, news, and editorial all share a common objective of truth and high ethical standards in serving the public.” Read the ethical guidance on the institute’s website:
• Principles and Practices – Institute for Advertising Ethics
The introduction stresses that “all forms of communications, including advertising, should always do what is right for consumers, which in turn is right for business as well.”
As a quick summary, the Institute for Advertising Ethics suggests that advertising professionals should follow these general guidelines:
- Distinguish advertising from news content.
- Disclose payment or receipt of free products that would affect endorsements (from celebrities and social media influencers, for example).
- Treat consumers fairly based on the target audience for the ad and the nature of the product or service being advertised.
- Protect consumers’ privacy and be transparent when asking consumers to share personal information.
If you are considering a career in advertising, you can read a more complete version with abundant commentary.
FREE?
Deceptive use of the word free often surfaces in disputes about advertising ethics.
For example, in 2022 the Associated Press reported that TurboTax would pay $141 million to U.S. customers “who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services.” An investigation suggested that through its ad slogan for “Free, Free, Free,” TurboTax was “using deceptive tactics to steer low-income tax filers away from the federally supported free services for which they qualified — and toward its own commercial products, instead.”
• Intuit to pay $141M settlement over ‘free’ TurboTax ads – Associated Press
TurboTax’s settlement tab in Arkansas was $1 million to be split among approximately 35,000 Arkansans.
CLOSER TO HOME (if you live in Arkansas)
Ideally, online reviews should be written by real consumers and provide authentic opinions about products and services they have purchased. However, some business owners, PR workers and others can’t resist the temptation to game the system unethically. While this may seem relatively harmless at first glance, consider how fake reviews devalue a system that many online viewers rely on to make spending decisions. Fake reviews are essentially advertisements masquerading as consumer opinions.
As an extreme example, you can read this story about a University of Central Arkansas business instructor who offered extra credit to students who wrote fake reviews. The article is from the student-run independent newspaper.
- UCA professor offers bonus points for fake reviews – UCAnews.live
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
Transparency has become a recurring ethical concern for social media influencing. Ethical standards for social influencers are still evolving among conscientious media professionals. They key ingredient is transparency. If an influencer is paid for a post, that needs to be clear to the audience.
As an example from 2022, several prominent social media influencers were part of a social media campaign financed by the Chinese Consulate in New York, although the influencers’ followers weren’t aware of that.
• China used TV, TikTok stars in discreet Olympics campaign – Associated Press
The article includes this:
Instagram requires that influencers tag the sponsor, and both TikTok and Instagram require their users to register the posts as a paid partnership with the company. Most influencers, however, flout those rules — leaving social media users in the dark about who is paying for the posts they see in their feeds.
Another ethical concern is that social media influencers sometimes accept money for products or services they know nothing about. Perhaps the most prominent case involved the overhyped Fyre Festival in 2017. Models and influencers, such as Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, promoted the festival through social media, blindly trusting that the event was legitimate. As it turned out, the Fyre Festival was a scam, and its organizer was sent to jail for fraud.
• Has Fyre Festival burned influencers? – BBC
Ultimately, the Fyre Festival became the subject of two interesting documentary films but did not lead to clearer ethical or legal standards for social media influencing.
And we’ll close with a quick influencer example from January 2023. The example involves TikTok, mascara and deceptive eyelashes in an influencer’s post. The Rolling Stone magazine headline below emphasizes a connection to concepts in this chapter.
Perhaps this is the moral of the story: Even though influencers (and those who employ and manage them) are not news journalists, they should still maintain ethical standards for truth and transparency.
CLOSING REVIEW
WRITE ABOUT IT
Answer each of the following numbered items with approximately five sentences for each response. When possible, strengthen your responses with brief supporting content from this chapter.
1. You studied weasel words in advertising. Now find an example of an advertisement that you think incorporates weasel words in delivering its message. If possible, include an image or provide a link to the the ad design or video with your response. Explain how the ad deceives consumers by giving a vague promise or making a claim that is difficult to measure.
2. If you were an executive, would you be in favor of your company incorporating social media influencers into its advertising campaigns? If so, for what types of products do you think it would be useful and appropriate? Conversely, for what types of products do you think it would be inappropriate? Based on IAE guidelines and content from this chapter (such as the Fyre Festival example), what ethical concerns would you have with using a social media influencer, and how could you alleviate those concerns in the planning and decision-making process?
3. Pick ONE of the following options and respond by providing clear support from the Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE) Principles and Practices:
Option A – Based on IAE guidelines, is it ever appropriate to use sex for attention-grabbing content in advertising if the product itself is not related to sex? In case you need a specific example, you can apply your response to this Carl’s Jr. ad that generated controversy when it aired during the 2015 Super Bowl. (Warning – some readers may be offended by the contents of the ad.)
Option B – You read a brief example involving Juul. Suppose you work for an ad agency tasked with developing a campaign for Juul. How would you follow IAE guidelines while still crafting a successful campaign for Juul? Is that possible?
