Ethical Limitations In Advertising

Having a well-known brand can be considered as the mark of a successful business, but popularizing a brand through unethical means will harm it instead. Businesses often make false claims on their product without any evidence, cheating the consumers from the truth. Furthermore, businesses can choose to only tell the truth that they want the consumers to hear, in order to make their brand more favorable. Advertisements of a product could also appeal to the consumers’ psychological motivations, causing them to buy a product that they might not otherwise have bought. In order to avoid these cases, ethical limitations are needed in marketing. The ethical limitations of brand marketing strategies are over-exaggeration, deception, and targeting vulnerability.

Whenever a brand depicts its own product in an exaggerated way, it could intrigue the consumers regarding the brand. This can lead them into buying the product or create a positive image on the consumers, giving more recognition on the brand. However, there are cases of over-exaggeration in advertising that brings negative effects instead. From false claims that cannot be delivered to hyperbolic role of a product, over-exaggeration ends up in having consumers dismissing a brand. It gets worse when the consumer believes in false claims made by a brand, leaving them to create a negative response towards the brand. However, exaggeration is a grey area from the ethical perspective. This is because exaggeration is often used as part of an opinion, where exaggeration is used to flare up advertisements. For example in the following statement, “Alfredo’s Pizzeria: The city’s best pizzas”, it’s understood that Alfredo’s Pizzeria merely stated an opinion that their pizzas are the best in the city. The following statement, “Morrison’s Employment Agency, where everyone and anyone can get a job”, is a violation of truth telling where the employment agency stated that they could guarantee a job for anyone, which includes underage children that’s not allowed to work by the law. Although it can be argued that this claim

For starters, to be vulnerable is to be at risk of harm. There are two types of vulnerability in the discussion of market strategies. The first type is called customer vulnerability, a vulnerability where a person is unable to create an informed decision to the market exchange. A person is susceptible to this vulnerability if the person lacks the psychological ability, intellectual ability, or maturity to make consumer judgment. The perfect example of such vulnerability are children; with their lack of understanding regarding markets, values, and economy. Marketing that is targeted at individuals who are vulnerable as consumers can be considered unethical. The second type is called general vulnerability, a vulnerability where a person is susceptible to some form of harm, from physical, psychological, to financial. Marketing that is targeted at individuals susceptible to harm, such as a pharmacy marketing medicines to those vulnerable to being sick, is ethical. In these types of vulnerability, groups who are vulnerable to both types exist. The first group is people that become vulnerable as consumers because they are vulnerable in a general sense. For example elderly who’s vulnerable to injuries and illness might be unable to make proper customer choices. The second