Ethics in Advertising
“Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine”– David Ogilvy (https://www.ventureharbour.com/great-quotes-advertising-marketing-experts/)
Ethics within business can be a very strenuous and boring topic for most, having to follow guidelines can tarnish freedom of expression or quality of work in more ways than one. Decisions taken within an organisation may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company they are working in. Employees must make a conscious decision on what they think is the right course of action to take. Bad business ethics can bring a negative name to a company and on the contrary, good ethical business behaviour and corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business.
But what does all of this mean for ethics within the Advertising industry?
People in advertising spend a lot of their time dealing with ethical choices and in some cases there are even job positions within large corporate agencies that focus on this area solely, to ensure the best result for the client. Now, you might think being ethical would be a fairly standard procedure for most people, and that is definitely a reasonable way to think. But the subjectivity of ethics in advertising is a very controversial, and highly debated issue. Most people in the field of advertising are on a constant struggle in regards to what is ethical, not just to oneself or group but to the masses.
From my recent experience interning at Isobar (AUS) as an Art Director, I have been exposed to a multitude of different client briefs. Each just as important as the next, but all having very different guidelines in what they are trying to achieve strategically and creatively. There have been times where our team has answered a brief with a huge list of weird and wacky ideas that we think would be ‘funny’ or ‘exciting’ but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they would’ve worked strategically or better yet, be ethically appropriate in the market place. It can be very easy to get sidetracked as a creative to what you might think is considered entertainment and what a particular audience will find it enjoyable to view, It’s important to not take advantage of the power that we have as advertisers.
Isobar is a digital agency focusing on a lot of social media/web advertising and it is evident from interning here that digital media is a the most dynamic and diverse platform for people to work in. Social media is always evolving every day and there are so many more angles for creative’s to reach their target audience. This means there are more ways for advertisers to stretch their ethical boundaries. A big trend at the moment is tricking people through click-bait advertising, it can be used for good but can also be used for bad, which is terribly un-ethical and should not be allowed. According to a website called Seriously Simple Marketing, they stated ‘As an Internet Marketer, you have an opportunity to be creative and come up with headlines that compel your visitors to click-through. Just be sure you’re being honest and providing content that delivers on the promise the headline teases.’ (seriouslysimplymarketing.com) The first thing we learn as an Advertiser is to always tell the truth, for legal reasons and morality We are seeing the latter happen more and more through Blogs, websites and Facebook then ever before and it needs to stop.
Another area that is terribly inappropriate and is starting to become a recurring issue is bullying online for the purpose of advertising. Facebook fan pages are creating memes of anyone they see online and making their own content within that regardless if it is positive or negative, this is morally not ok just because they are wanting to gain a few more followers or likes on their pages. Although the internet is an amazing tool for us in more ways than one, there still needs to be serious consideration that goes into what people share on social media. Kyra Pringle, who is a South Carolina mother whose young daughter has a rare genetic disorder, found first hand when a photo she posted of her daughter’s birthday party on her Facebook page. Someone stole the photo and shared it hundreds of times, which then got shared hundreds of time more after that. The meme, which was digitally altered, which compared the little girl to a monster or alien because of rare facial features caused by her illness. The mother told NBC that “This is bullying. This is not right. She’s fought for her life since she got here; she’s not a monster. She’s not fake. She’s real. She’s here.” (http://www.worldmag.com/2015/03/memes_innocent_fun_or_internet_bullying) Due to the nature of Facebook and Instagram, pretty much anything goes, and no one is going to be able to stop them from posting but themselves, we need to think twice as advertisers before abusing these platforms.
One of the clients at Isobar is a very well known service centre that will remain un-named, our job is to manage their social media page and create content. Now this service centre hasn’t been receiving the most positive feedback lately due to an issue regarding underpaid staff. This has lead to a lot of angry customers posting aggressive and negative comments on their social media channels, which has proven to be very challenging for us. When we brainstorm any creative content, we have to also keep in mind that there will be backlash comments regarding the issue they’ve had. When managing the page, we have to always respond with something positive or apologise to the comments regardless if they’re snide remarks are truthful or not. BUT, having my own personal Facebook account just a click away, I’ve been very tempted to snap back at some of these comments out of anger due to them being blatantly wrong. Is it ethically appropriate to reply back to some of these comments as Jesse Young? My contract states that I couldn’t do anything of this nature through a CLIENTS page, but it doesn’t say anything about posting from my own personal account. It’s very interesting to be able to have a voice online regardless of whom you are and what you do but we should always think twice when using online platforms.
The digital platform is a very powerful resource and can be abused if not handled with care. We as advertisers have the power to use our expertise and skills for the greater good and on the contrary we also have the power to use them for evil. No one is going to stop us from creating negative content but ourselves and it’s very important for years to come that we educate the next generation of young creative’s to use our power for good and not evil.
By Jesse Young