Advertising, Ethics In

Advertising ethics is a normative process that begins with moral awareness and ends with an ethical decision. While the process involves many different stakeholders, the practitioners involved in planning, designing, and placing advertisements on behalf of their clients are the people primarily responsible for perceiving and responding to the ethical nature of challenges. Other stakeholders include marketers of products and services, vendors and suppliers, and media organizations. Consumers are also important stakeholders in determining the extent to which advertisements and processes are right and good, since a marketer’s success is dependent on consumers’ trust. This entry provides an overview of the context in which ethical challenges in advertising arise, explores the nature of those challenges, and offers guidance for decision-making.

The demands of honesty and transparency ...