ADVERTISING ETHICS Advertising pervades our lives.

It is impossible to read a newspaper or

magazine, watch a television show, or travel the streets of our cities without being bombarded by commercial messages. Although some ads may be irritating or offensive. We also derive benefit from information about products and from the boost the advertising gives to the economy as a whole. One the other side of the fence, companies with products or services to sell regard advertising as a valuable, indeed indispensable marking tool. Advertising is a large and essential part of the Pakistani way of doing business. DEFINATION: It is a paid non personal communication about an organization and its products that is transmitted to a target audience through a mass medium. Advertising is also used to sell ideas, attitudes and behavior in order to benefit the targeted individuals and society generally. This kind of advertising on behalf of better health, environmental protection, and the like is called social marketing. Advertising is widely criticized, exaggerated claims and out rights falsehoods are the most obvious targets for complaints, followed closely by the lack of taste, irritating repetition, and offensive character. Mot recently, questions have been raised about the morality of specific kinds of advertising, such as advertising for alchol and tobacco products and ads aimed at children. Particular ads are also faulted for their use of excessive sex or violence or for presenting negative stereotypes of certain groups. Other critics complain about the role advertising plays in creating a culture of consumerism. Advertising encourages people not only to buy more but also to

believe that their most basic needs and desires can be satisfied by products. Finally, there is great concern about the potential of advertising for behavior control. These objections to advertising have led to calls for government regulations, and industry self regulation. Advertising are generally controlled by public opinion, to which advertisers must pay head. Particularly offensive ads, for example, usually draw critical attention. DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING Roughly, an advertisement is deceptive if it has a tendency to deceive. On this definition, the deceptiveness of an ad does not depend solely on the truth or falsity of the claims it makes, but also on the impact the ad has on the people who see or hear it. It is possible for advertising to continue false claims without being deceptive and for advertising to be deceptive without containing any false claims. EXAMPLE A patently false claims for a hair restorer, might not actually deceive anyone. Furthermore, there are other advertising claims that are false if taken literally but are commonly regarded as harmless exaggerations. Every razor blade fro example, gives the closest, most comfortable shave; and every pain reliever, the quickest, gentlest relief. Deception must overcome several obstacles: First, we need to consider whether the deception is due to the ad or the person. Is an ad deceptive if it create false belief in relatively few rather ignorant consumers or only if it would deceive more numerous reasonable consumers. EXAMPLE A consumer who failed to catch the joke in an ad for a novelty beer, it proclaimed it to be the only beer with the foam an the bottom and was out regard to discover

that the foam was on the top, like all other beers. Clairol advertise in 1940s that a day will color hair permanently Second, an ad may not actually create a false belief but merely take advantage of peoples ignorance. EXAMPLE: Consider health claims in food advertising the word natural which usually means the absence of artificial ingredients, evokes images of wholesomeness in the mends of consumers.