Ethical and societal issues in marketing

Ethical and Societal Issues of Marketing

The fundamental business model of advertising is changing drastically as the Internet becomes a much more prevalent communications channel, capable of being specifically targeted to audiences of consumers while also providing the ability to measure the performance of all forms of digital advertising online. This has significantly increased the ability to measure the effectiveness of advertising that includes mention of sex, violent acts, and the use of drugs including cigarettes and alcohol. Traditional advertising on the one hand does not offer these levels of advertising effectiveness measurement, so seeing if sex, violence and the positioning of drugs of all kinds including tobacco and alcohol is left to conjecture and speculation. In light of the fundamental shift in how advertisers are allocating their dollars to primarily digital forms of advertising, the increasing use of sexual references, nudity, allusions to violence and the use of violent acts to capture attention, and the implied peer acceptance and respect from using drugs of all types including tobacco and alcohol is becoming increasingly pervasive in both digital and offline advertising. Advertisers are concerned about how effective their advertisements are in both the online and offline areas of their strategies, and as a result are increasing the use of provocative, suggestive, and borderline content to rise above the messages of their competing advertisers. The result is that the boundaries of ethical marketing and advertising are continually getting crossed more and more often as advertisers look to gain an ever greater share of attention in their target markets. Instead of concentrating on how to better manage their offline and online advertising strategies, advertisers often resort to content and messaging that if left unchecked in the target audiences, can negatively influence the lives of children who may also see the advertising or actually be the target audience for the advertising itself. Joe Camel was specifically created to promote smoking to pre-adolescent and adolescent children (Gilpin, White, Messer, Pierce, 2007). There are many more examples of advertisers focusing on children and adolescents who have trouble distinguishing between who they are relative to who they think they should be, and often look to material items to define who they are (Pechmann, Levine, Loughlin, Leslie, 2005).

The intent of this essay is to illustrate how these unethical practices of advertisers, in seeking to create a higher level of awareness and trial of their products, are harming children and introducing them to products that can significantly impair their ability to mature cognitively, emotionally and ethically. For advertisers the challenge of continually staying relevant in an increasingly competitive and unforgiving commercial landscape that does not tolerate brands becoming "stale" or worse, "old." In seeking to continually and always stay relevant, advertisers are turning increasingly to sex, nudity, violence, and the positioning of all forms of drugs as what makes a person cool and acceptable. Compounding the challenge for advertisers is that with online advertising channels there is more accountability and nearly instantaneous feedback on which advertising works and which doesn't. Yet the implications and impact of children is unmistakable and must be taken into account in evaluating the ethics of advertisers looking to stay relevant and noticed in an increasingly turbulent and challenging selling environment both offline and online.

Sex Sells...Sometimes

Ask any teenage boy what the last three articles he read in the Playboy or Penthouse were and you will get a blank stare but ask him what the name, measurements, hair and eye color of the latest Playmate or model he saw and you will that data and more in a heartbeat. Research showing the influence of sex on advertising effectiveness supports this example with a high level of statistical significance; men typically associate nudity and sexually explicit images as both romantic and sexual in the same perception (Cummins, 2007). Women on the other hand disassociate nudity and sexual innuendoes in advertising with romantic feelings, which make the argument of sex always being a winner in advertising inconclusive (Cummins, 2007) and the studies completed linking this finding to excitation transfer theory as it relates to MTV videos and the purchase of music (Zillmann and Mundorf, 1987). What the researchers found that the excitation transfer theory accounted for higher sales to adolescent and post-adolescent males of musicians' songs that included coital and post-coital relations, yet actually resulted in a lower level of sales to girls in these same two age groups. Further, the girls mentioned that the sexual activity was offensive and often appeared to be in scenarios that featured women being the subservient role in the encounter. Rarely did the women in the videos initiate the sexual contact and activity, yet were seen as more as objects of gratification than being equal partners (Zillmann and Mundorf, 1987). Nonexistent in the use of sexual content both in online video clips on YouTube and throughout the MTV videos included in the analysis was one instance of a woman's pleasure being seen as more important than the man's dominance of the woman sexually (Cummins, 2007). This led the research (Zillmann and Mundorf, 1987) to conclude that highly erotic content that features nudity and coital and post-coital activity was more about males having a sense of conquering and less about bringing pleasure to the woman in the advertisements (Cummins, 2007). As a result, girls in these age groups who were shown these videos and asked to rate them and also define the probability they would purchase the music and the results showed that at an.01 level of confidence, they would not (Cummins, 2007).

The ethics of advertising to children using sexual behavior and sexual innuendo who are pre-teenagers in the 10-12, age group, the 13-19 age groups, and to 20-year-olds is like handing them the keys to a jet aircraft when they haven't learned how to even drive a car yet. It is well documented the pre-adolescent and adolescent children tend to have little tolerance for ambiguity and often find experimentation as a means to both prove to themselves their own worth and sense of competency (Pechmann, Levine, Loughlin, Leslie, 2005). Combining sexual behavior as a means for boys to gain a sense of competency and giving girls this age a chance to rebel through an act that is overwhelming portrayed as having no real consequences directly leads to pre-teen and teen pregnancies, in addition to sexually transmitted diseases (STD)s including AIDS. For many of the producers and directors of these videos they were discovering their sexual freedom during a period when the threat of AIDS and the rampant spread of STDs had not reached its present state. On top of these health reasons which are in and of themselves reason to create guidelines that monitor the ethicacy of sexual content aimed at pre-adolescents and adolescents, there is the fact that girls and young women in these videos are shown to be inferior and not taken into account as equal to men. In short, the use of sex in advertising music completely ignores the health risks and also fuels a complete lack of respect for the women in the scenarios portrayed. Worst of all, the use of sex in all forms of advertising targeted to pre-adolescents and adolescents sets the foundation for the most dangerous kinds of rebellious behavior they can imagine; creating another life and then having to take on more responsibility when they aren't responsible for their own yet. Clearly unethical to use in advertising seen by children, this appealing to the curiosity and rebelliousness of children needs to be legislated against and advertisers who do this sell a few more songs need to be fined.

Selling Violence, Not Products

The use of excessive violence both in advertisements online including the increasing use of this type of content in viral videos on YouTube and other video sharing sites generates significant Web traffic and spikes all the key performance indicators (KPIs) that advertisers evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising strategies on. Ironically however there is significant research that shows while the act of violence is memorable, the product being promoted by the violence is not (Kanti, Smith, 1994). The effects of violence on children and their wanting to act out what they see on television has been conclusively proven in research studies that link aggressive behavior seen both online and on television to acted out aggressive activity in homes and schools. The violent activity, not the product, is the most memorable of aspects from advertisers' approaches to use violence to sell their products. While their advertisements, both online, in print and on television may rise above the noise level created by other advertisers' comparable approaches to gain visibility, it is ultimately not effective in actually selling the products being offered (Pechmann, Levine, Loughlin, Leslie, 2005). Instead, the act of violence becomes the product and the actual product being offered is incidental. (the fact that violence portrayed in advertising is most pronounced in its effects on pre-adolescents and adolescents and in effect sells the violent act over the product further underscores the ethical questions advertisers must face in targeting younger consumers with their advertising. The concentration on action and violence draws larger audiences, yet is not effective in selling products Pechmann, Levine, Loughlin, Leslie, 2005).

Researchers have also found that the brains of pre-adolescents and adolescents have low levels of inhibitory control and therefore pursue reckless and risky activities due to their judgment not being fully developed (Cauffman, Steinberg, 2000). Adolescents who have seen reckless and risky behavior online or on television advertising are 80% more likely to engage in the behavior (Trimpop, Rudiger, Kerr, Kirkcaldy, 1999). The lack of inhibitory controls when combined with the an abundance of violent content leads quickly to replication of viewed acts of violence, especially in pre-adolescents, as verified through research completed (Trimpop, Rudiger, Kerr, Kirkcaldy, 1999).

Ethically this raises the question of whether the advertisers are more adept at the selling of violent acts than products, as the brains of the audience members they are selling products to are not developed enough to have inhibitory senses and judgment intact. While violent content as portrayed in both online and offline content does increase viewership and click-through rates in the case of online and digital content, it ultimately fails to sell more products as the act of violence is more memorable than the product shown (Kanti, Smith, 1994). For those marketing professionals that gain bonuses and increases in their salaries based purely on the activity, not the sales results of their advertising campaigns, the increase in violence with pre-adolescents and adolescents needs to be taken into account. Instead of creating advertising campaigns that appeal to this age group advertisers need to be targeting those demographic segments who have more fully developed inhibitory brain functions and can distinguish between what is dangerous or not. The many incidents of children, pre-adolescents and adolescents attempting stunts seen on television or online, sponsored by advertisers, need to be legislated against to protect children from making decisions they may see as perfectly logical and safe. The bottom line of all this is that marketers who are paid on click-through rates and views tend to rely on the most outrageous and controversial violence so their advertising campaigns are seen as successful when in fact there is often no increase in sales, only a great threat to children attempting to accomplish the same stunts and risking harm to themselves and their friends and family.

Tobacco and Alcohol Advertising Effects Are Lasting

Advertisers who concentrate on tobacco and alcohol advertising both offline and online often create lifelong customers from the ranks of children and teenagers seeing their advertisements. The fact the Joe Camel was specifically developed to attract children to Camel cigarettes is a case in point (Gilpin, White, Messer, Pierce, 2007). These researchers have created a maturity model that shows how over time children exposed to cigarette advertising, even as children, take just ten packs of purchases to become regular users of tobacco, and there is a 46% chance they will become lifelong smokers as a result. The use of promotional materials including the use billboards near elementary, middle schools, and high schools has also shown to be effective in stimulating trial use of cigarettes in school children attending these schools. The predominance of messaging around tobacco products continually fuels a sequence of trail leading to adoption and then heavy use on the part of pre-adolescents and adolescents (Gilpin, White, Messer, Pierce, 2007).

The ethics of advertisers concentrating on children as early adopters has been assailed by the U.S. Congress and lawmakers which have outlawed these advertising practices and relied on federal agencies to ensure that children are protected from both offline and online advertising by tobacco companies concentrating their messages on the youngest group of consumers they possibly can introduce to their products. it's blatantly unethical to advertise these products to children who, as was seen in the studies relating to violence, do not have a fully developed set of inhibitory functions in their brains to discern if smoking is good for them or not. The Truth campaign has been highly successful in getting children to give up smoking if they have already tried it and not trying it in the first place if they haven't yet (Farrelly, Davis, Haviland, Messeri, Healton, 2005). Conversely however those children exposed both online and offline to cigarette advertising stand a high probability of becoming lifetime smokers if there is no countervailing strategy to bring them back from smoking an initial ten packs. The tragedy of this is that many children are now beginning to develop lung disease before their bodies are fully grown. The lack of ethics tobacco advertisers have in recruiting children as customers is reprehensible and needs to be a marketing practice that if continued, needs to earn these advertisers heavy fines for taking advantage of children by making their products appear to be toys when in fact there are major health consequences of using them.