ADVERTISING: Social, Ethical and Economic Aspects

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ADVERTISINGSocial, Ethical and Economic Aspects
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Ethical Perspectives

• DEONTOLOGY - Gk. deon - obligation
• Focus is on the means
• Kants categorical imperative
• Do unto others
• equity, justice, fairness
• Clark Catholicism and Judaism
• Concern about the least able

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Ethical Perspectives

• TELEOLOGY -- Gk. telos - end
• Focus is on the ends
• Utilitarianism
• The greatest good for the greatest number
• Cost - Benefit analysis
• individualism, pursuit of profit, hard work
• Clark The Protestant Ethic
• Caveat emptor

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Ethical Perspectives

• Lets use two distinct names for ethical
• MORAL
• the means are good
• OR
• JUSTIFIABLE
• the ends justify the means

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Advertising Effects

• INFORMATION
• Advertising INFORMS consumers
• Does not change the way they value those
  attributes.
• POWER
• Advertising CHANGES consumer preferences.
• It changes product attributes,
• differentiates the product from competitive
  offerings.

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Leo Burnett

• To me it means that if we believe to any degree
  whatsoever in the economic system under which we
  live,
• in a high standard of living and in high
  employment,
• advertising is the most efficient known way of
  moving goods in practically every product class.

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Leo Burnett

• My proof is that millions of businessmen have
  chosen advertising over and over again in the
  operations of their business.
• Some of their decisions may have been wrong, but
  they must have thought they were right or they
  wouldnt go back to be stung twice by the same
  kind of bee.

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Leo Burnett

• Its a pretty safe bet that in the next 10 years
  many Americans will be using products and devices
  that no one in this room has even heard of.
• Judging purely by past performance, American
  advertising can be relied on to make them known
  and accepted overnight at the lowest possible
  prices.

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Leo Burnett

• Advertising, of course, makes possible our
  unparalleled variety of magazines, newspapers,
  business publications, and radio and television
  stations.

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Leo Burnett

• It must be said that without advertising we
  would have a far different nation,
• and one that would be much the poorer-not merely
  in material commodities, but in the life of the
  spirit.

Excerpts from a speech given April 20,1967 at
the American Association of Advertising Agencies
50th anniversary