Advertising is providing information, calling attention to, and making known
something that you want to sell or promote. It is a message designed to promote or sell a product, a service, or an idea. Advertising reaches people through varied types of mass communication. In everyday life, people come into contact with many different kinds of advertising. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consu mer. These messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action.
Types of Advertising
Print Advertising Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers The print media have always been a popular advertising medium. It is aimed for those who read the newspapers, magazine, etc. which most of them does. Advertising products via newspapers or magazines is a common practice. Outdoor Advertising Billboards, Kiosks, Tradeshows and Events Outdoor advertising is also a very popular form of advertising, which makes use of several tools and techniques to attract the customers outdoors. The billboard advertising is ve ry popular however has to be really terse and catchy in order to grab the attention of the passers by. The kiosks not only provide an easy outlet for the company products but also make for an effective advertising tool to promote the companys products. Organizing several events or sponsoring them makes for an excellent advertising opportunity. Broadcast advertising Television, Radio and the Internet Broadcast advertising is a very popular advertising medium. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced. The radio might have lost its charm owing to the new age media however the radio remains to be the choice of small -scale advertisers. Covert Advertising Advertising in Movies Covert advertising is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports. Public Service Advertising Advertising for Social Causes Public service advertising is a technique that makes use of advertising as an effective communication medium to convey socially relevant messaged about important matters and social welfare causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty and so on.
Ethical Advertising
Ethics in advertising to most sounds like the definition for irony. However, the practice of truthful advertising is commonplace in todays society. Advertisers are held accountable for the messages they produce. So too are the manufacturers, whom are held accountable for their products meeting the standards set forth by the advertisement. For the most part this is a self - regulated practice. Once an advertised product is called out for not living up to expectation, recovery of reputation and overall positive brand imaging are rarely had. The added fear of civil lawsuits pertaining to deceptive advertising coupled with penal laws which prohibit such dishonest acts, make for an industry centered on truthful intent. Meaning false or misleading information in advertising media is punishable by judicial law.
Factors for judging an advertising as ethical
Honesty The area of perhaps the most concern in advertising ethics is honesty. With the strong incentives to sell a product at any cost, an advertiser may feel pressure to not only exaggerate to make a sale but to make claims that are entirely false. Though the short -term gains of dishonesty may make it seem worthwhile from a purely opportunistic standpoint, if a company gets a reputation for dishonesty it may damage its brand image. Manipulation Ethical concerns over manipulation in advertising are similar to those over dishonesty. It is possible, in theory, for an advertiser to sell a product through manipulative techniques that play on a consumers baser emotions and reactions. Again, though this sort of strategy may work well with consumers in the short term, it may damage brand names. Reason An advertiser who wishes to achieve the highest ethical standards will try to appeal to consumers through their reason and intelligence. Though this is an ideal that might not be completely reached, it is one that many marketers do often strive for. Honesty and integrity actually have very valued places in the advertising industr y. Highly ethical advertising is usually the best route, both short -term and long-term, for high quality products.
Unethical Advertising
Using advertising in a way that is misleading and uses false claims to get the public to buy the product they are try ing to sell is unethical, because of its misuse of the information that is presented to the public. Ads that are used in the political realm can sometimes be misleading and use false information or bend the truth to get the public to sway their votes towar ds them. An ad in the campaign for the election between McCain and Obama used an ad with misleading information. Such as, saying that a developer received $20 million in tax payers money, but the truth was there was no money received. This can be considered unethical as they are giving false information to the public, which is done a lot in political advertisement. An advertisement that is made should be able to identify what the targeted audience is. But, sometimes this is not always done. Just like advert isements in commercial or billboards, the internet has its own issues in advertising as well. As they can sometimes promote untrue claims and when this happens it can have a negative impact on their product and brand. There are ethical guidelines for problematic ads that can look an article, on the internet. Those ads can be misinterpreted with editorial content needs to be labeled, that is an advertisement. Otherwise it is unethical when this isn't displayed. Using advertising in this way is misleading and it shows that view the consumer as naive, which is unethical. By not putting the right amount of information makes the public believe something in a different way because of what has been said. This may lead them into a wrong direction and buying a produc t that is not right for them. Using out right lies in advertising is part of unethical advertising and doesn't follow the guideline practices that they have to follow when demonstrating a product to the consumer. Lying about what the product, gives false i nformation and makes them believe that something is true when it is not. Which should be avoided in advertising as it will eventually give them a bad reputation, because of its misuse of information.
Major Unethical practices in Advertising
Criticizing the Competitor One of the main forms of unethical advertising is of criticising the products of the competitors in plain, through their advertisements. Advertisements are meant for promoting ones products or services and not for teasing the competitors products. Those kinds of advertisements cannot be justified in any way. These kinds of practices were readily seen through the ads of Pepsi and Coca -Cola. They were openly criticising anothers products.
Logo Plagiarism Plagiarism has become a widespread problem. Be it the education field or the corporate world, the curse of plagiarism is prevalent. The same nuisance is existent the logo design industry. One of the reasons for logo plagiarism is for marketing the brand value of the other companys logo by means of advertising. It can be treated as an unethical advertising as well. Therefore, you take a look at some of the most identical logo designs below and decide which of these seems to be a copy or coincidence?
y Volvo and QuickTime y Google and Gojje y Pepsi and Korean Airline y NBC and Nebraska ETV Network y BMW and BYD y Unilever and Swiat Zdrowia y Toyota and Jincheng y Bacardi and Swiss air force y Sun Microsystems and Columbia Sportswear
Cigarette and liquor
Children Advertising has influenced children to a large extent. When you go to any toy department you can see how. Whether it's the new Wii gadget or the new Xbox, children are clamouring to be first in line. Another area which influenced the children is the FMCG sector. For e.g.: Children used to buy many CHEETOS massively, to collect the surprise gifts inside the packet. y Children are Defenceless: Children are innocent and not so mature. When a marketer advertises a product on television, they do not understand that it is a business and their main aim is to sell. Advertisements are made in such a way as to attract the attention of children. Children do not understand it to be marketing strategy. Children are an extremely vulnerable target audience and get easily carried away. y Junk Food Advertising and Children: Research has shown that junk food advertisements influence children greatly leading to an increased demand for junk food by children. When children watch young adults in good shape eating junk foods in the advertisements they assume that it is good for the health. They are unaware of the fact that junk food does not contain nutritional value. They are seen to be so influenced by these ads that they almost doubled their consumption of these unhealthy snacks and softdrinks. It is not a surprise to know that childhood diabetes is also on the rise.
Conditions apply You will come to know of the conditions only when you are about to buy the commodity. There are hardly any ads in the news papers which do not come with the star mark somewhere in the ad. And we all know what that star means (Conditions Apply). And there is also one more way of representing it. They will say these conditions at the end of the ad as 'Terms and Conditions'. And these terms and conditions are there with such a small font so that it is unable to read. Was it only done to fool the potential buyers? Not clear yet. k when one has to market a product he boosts of its good features but other thing like these 'conditions apply' should not be hidden from customers. erhaps only in the radio ads they explicitly have to say 'Conditions Apply' (which is not the case in newspaper ads as you may miss while glancing the ad in the news paper) and you become more aware of that. Hospitals Hospitals generally are not-for-profit but still face financial pressures to attract patients and stay afloat. Hospital advertising began about 20 years ago and grew as managed care increased competition among hospitals. Hospitals now start to advertise massively to attract patients to them. But the point to consider is that, they play with the fears of the people and give an unnecessary fear in the minds of people and provoke them to visit the hospital. When they are into the hospital, the hospitals , through their various measures and treatment will provide a huge bill to the so called patients. Hospitals responded to this situation by saying that, hospitals ads are ethical, intended to create awareness about health. Advertising for the hospital is not an unethical practise since it is meant for publicizing the facilities in a hospital to the people. But if the ad is focusing on the fears of the people, it said to be an unethical practice.
Woman Advertising is a very powerful and influential medium therefore it plays an important and great role in shaping society's views of women by how it portrays them. Unfortunately, most of the images of women in advertisements are unjust to the nature of women, negative and misrepresentative of women and their roles in society. The women in advertisements and ads usually are in their mid twenties wearing provocative and revealing clothes. Some of those models in advertisements have a pose and facial expression that are daring and sexually explicit which will surely offend women because these women are not conservative dress-wise and even in emotional communication and relationships. Generally, when women are seen as sexual objects, they are treated as such in society. Our society is supposed to be an enlightened and human society where everybody, especially women and girls, are treated with decency and respect.