Ethics in Advertisement
... “the three ethical-deontological principles that directly affect advertisement are trueness, identification and justice.” (Íbid.: 13) The first deals with the fact that all marketing messages should fit to reality, especially if their affirmations might impact the economical behavior of consumers; the facts should not lead to false expectations, too. The identification principle indicates that the “viewer must be informed of the communicational category of the message that he/she is receiving. Therefore, advertising that pretend to be something else, camouflaged under the veil of information or entertainment, should be eliminated.” (Ibid.: 14) In other words, it is not right to confuse the viewer about the true nature of the message. Several identification principle controversies arise at product placement activities during TV shows because the public is not informed that the promotion of such product is not casual and obeys to a previous agreement, of economic nature, between the advertiser and the producer. The justice principle, demands that the public image of a person or group of persons is not intentionally damaged. According to Aznar and Catalán the three groups that are more commonly affected in their public image are women, children, and the elder. Women are usually attributed sexual references in advertising while no other abilities are shown. Towards children advertising tends to be psychologically manipulated because they might not be considered rational by advertisers. The elder are represented in ridiculous roles in most of the few times their character or image is used in advertising. (Ibid.: 16) “Unethical behavior in the market turns to unethical behavior in advertising: they fall in the temptation of using denigration, exaggeration, tricky omissions, lies, and scandals in their messages.” (Ibid.: 17) A very commented case in which the three principles described above are not respected is the advertisement used in Third World countries to promote tobacco consumption. The main problem has to do with the image they pretend to offer to the potential costumers. In Kinshasa, Congo, the tobacco advertisement shows a business man wearing an expensive suit getting d...