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As the form of communication, advertising intended to persuade the audience to consume goods or services. The modern concept of business ethics, however, implies the definite ethical standards for advertising. From the very beginning of the history of trade the art of goods and services promotion developed greatly. Special branches of science appeared, which studying and developing the new methods and technologies of advertising. Some of these methods and solutions are rather effective, though they break ethical principles and existing laws. The infamous effect of 25th frame could be the good example of unethical advertising method. It was proved, that human eyes percept 24 frames per second in video stream. Experimental results found that the audience can’t notice the 25th frame in the stream and read its message (like “Drink coca-cola”), but it can remember the message on the subconscious level and execute it buying coca-cola.
The recent trends in this sphere are rather optimistic. The studies defined the unethical kinds of advertising and the most vulnerable parts of audience. In this work I will cite the definitions of different types of advertising based on the mechanism of its influence, discuss some cases of improper advertising, and comment some ethical aspects of advertising.
Unethical advertising
Discussing my personal relation to unethical advertising, I’d like to use the classification by Tom Beauchamp. He divided all advertising on three broad categories by the way of influence on the audience. They are coercion, manipulation, and persuasion. Beauchamp defines the level of control for every of these classes as the following:
“1) Coercive influences are always control-ling influences; (2) manipulative influences are sometimes controlling influences; and (3) persuasive influences are never control-ling influences.” (Beauchamp, 477)
Sure, it is often hard to determine manipulating advertising, especially when the producers or advertisers don’t agree they try to manipulate customers. They often argue that freedom of choice is rather abstract category, not only in consumption but also in daily life. Many of people’s choice are closely connected with their religious, ethnical, or family background. Beauchamp proposes to leave the issue of ideal freedom and try to define if actions of consumers are sufficiently or adequately free. To facilitate the detection of manipulation in advertising, he gives the definitions of coercion, manipulation, and persuasion.
“…coercion occurs if one party deliberately and successfully uses force or a credible threat of unwanted, avoidable, and serious harm in order to compel a particular response from another person. No matter how attractive or overwhelming an offer, coercion is not involved unless a threatening sanction is presented.” (Beauchamp, 477) As the example the advertising of medical attention and food in return on human blood in starving countries could be provided. Nowadays this class of advertising is extremely rare, though it was widely spread before the industrial age.
“…persuasion is a deliberate and successful attempt by one person to encourage another to freely accept beliefs, attitudes, values, or actions through appeals to reason. The first person offers what he or she believes to be good reasons for accepting the desired perspective. In paradigmatic cases of persuasion, these good reasons are conveyed through structured verbal facts or argument.” (Ibid)
The persuasion can use not only verbal methods, but also express the good reasons through nonverbal communication. Theoretically persuasive advertising is the most ethical class; however the real situation is more complicated, as it is discussed below.
“Manipulation is a broad category that includes any successful attempt to elicit the desired response from another person by non-coercively modifying choices available to the person or by no persuasively altering another person perception of available choices.” (Beauchamp, 479)
The main difference between manipulation and persuasion is that the last one based on deception.
The case of marketing infant formula by Nestle Company could be the good example of manipulation. There are two points of criticism in this marketing company. First, the aggressive advertising of instant formula that made new mothers believing it was equal, or even better, than breast milk for their babies. Second, the use of medical workers in product promotion was the doubtful method. Perhaps it should not be the object of criticism. Despite the negative influence of instant formula on baby’s digestion, which was not proved at that time, it was the good alternative for rice water and other artificial substitutes of breast milk. The instant formula could be a good solution when mother has no enough milk or newborn baby has intolerance to lactose, or in some other cases. Prescriptable by medical personnel, infant formula could be a kind of treatment. However, the combination of aggressive advertising and promotion through medical personal was unethical. Using the lack of knowledge about the properties of instant formula in comparison with breast milk, Nestle promoted its production among the mothers, which didn’t actually need an artificial feeding for their babies. The use of somebody’s ignorance for the profit is a deception, so the marketing company of instant formula by Nestle was the manipulation.
The result of such unethical marketing was the growths of child mortality level, though different sources provide diverse data about the number of deaths from digestion malfunction. I’d not support the claim of Dr. Spoke to boycott all the production of Nestle, but the unethical behavior of this company makes me suspicious of its production.
Speaking about unethical advertising, the issue of tobacco and alcohol advertising can not be skipped. Alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs and its harmful impact on people was proved many years ago. The advertisers use so-called “lifestyle” advertising, which connecting the use of tobacco and alcohol with good times, easy sex, and fun. Jan Narveson, classifying the unethical kinds of advertising, put the lifestyle advertising in the category of misleading ads. “The manufacturer’s message, let us say, is that buying his product is a part of an attractive life-style.” (Narveson, 60) The problem is the purchase of the product by itself doesn’t guarantee the obtaining of advertised lifestyle.
The article “Marketing and disclosure” describes the Kool Penguin, the image hero of repositioned Kool cigarettes by Brown and Williamson tobacco. Young-looking penguin with stylish hair dress in fashion sunglasses advertised cigarettes, and this campaign was unethical twice. First, I am sure that any advertising of drugs like alcohol and cigarettes is unethical and have to be banned. In my opinion, customers of tobacco and alcohol should have information regarding these products only on demand, and this information should include the warnings about potential harm of these drugs.
The second ethical problem Kool penguin was its young look oriented on adolescent audience Children can use the empirical experience of previous situations after they are six, but it would be mistake to think that on its sixth birthday child obtains the opportunity to detect and resist manipulations. The psychic of children and adolescents is rather vulnerable, their suggestibility is significant, and so the advertising can have more significant impact on their mind. Narveson tells that though the ethics of entertaining advertising is doubtful, it can hardly be restricted. (Narveson, 60) That is why the use of child-oriented symbols in the advertising of drugs is, probably, the most unethical marketing policy.
The issue of women images in the advertising is another hot topic nowadays. Advertisers use images of beautiful women to promote their goods, especially food. However, women who believe the advertising and consume the advertised food often lose their beauty because of excess weight. Besides, the vital standards (height, weight, volume of tail and so on) of female models in advertising business differ from the average female vital standards. Thus, the advertisers impose the artificial standard of beauty that can’t fit to every woman. It makes many women all over the world feel discomfort regarding their appearance, use different diets that can be injurious for the health, and so on. So the advertising demonstrates happiness but actually kills it.
Nowadays business ethics is very important in all the spheres of company’s activities, including marketing and advertising. The ethical standards for advertising should be very strict to prevent potential moral, physical and financial damage to consumers.
References

Tom L. Beauchamp “Manipulative Advertising” (255-263)
Case study, “Marketing Infant Formula” (271-275)
Jan Narveson “Chapter 5: Advertising” by Jan Narveson (277-283)