Under Clause 1: The Canadian Code Of Advertising Standards

Advertising is a form of marketing that is used to promote and sell something, but many times it manipulates us into buying things that we normally would not purchase. There are many ethical issues that are raised by advertising. These ethical issues include the following: advertising imposes an underlying message that we need to purchase products to be happy, advertisement of harmful products, advertisement to children and minors, and also deception. The focus of this paper is to bring attention to the deception that is used in advertisement. Under Clause 1 of The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards is Accuracy and Clarity. It can be assumed that this would be a moral code if not the law around the world. Meaning that advertisement must

This has been the case in the past. Thinking back to 10-15 years ago it can be recalled that advertisements were more simple and truthful. For example a deodorant commercial would show an individual exercising and then show that he or she has sweat less or that their laundry does not smell quite as bad. Current commercials such as The Old Spice men’s deodorant shows the individual using the deodorant to suddenly appear on a cruise ship and on a white horse on the beach, which is completely irrelevant to the product and takes away attention from the actual use of the deodorant. Such commercials are formed in this way because with the advancement of psychology and knowing what people may be thinking and how to control their thoughts, advertisement tries to shape our desires. Thus, knowing that most people would love to take time out of their ordinary lives to go on vacation and to, for instance, ride down the beach on a white horse, this irrelevant information is used to make men desire the Old Spice

In this form of deception “subliminal suggestion can be used to control customers” (Arrington, 4). These messages are supposed to reach below the surface of the viewer’s conscious minds so that the customers do not realize that the marketers are controlling them. This by itself can already be considered quite deceitful and immoral. For example, in one of Palmolive’s commercials, a naked woman, sitting down in what seems to be a shower, is shown while the words read, “Who can resist the gentle touch of *picture of Palmolive body wash*”. At first it seems like she is holding her legs but if you pay closer attention a man is actually hugging her from behind and it is the man who is touching her leg. Thus, what the text at first seemed to mean, that every lady wants her legs to feel soft, now instead means that if your legs are soft then men will not be able to resist you. Therefore, a customer may unknowingly be deceived into thinking that she needs this body wash in order to be desired. “In a New Orleans department store, messages to the effect that shoplifting is wrong, illegal, and subject to punishment were blended into the Muzak background music and masked so as not to be consciously audible. The store reported a dramatic drop in shoplifting” (Arrington, 4). This is another example that shows how much of an affect subliminal messages and advertisement can have on the shopping