Marketing Communications

556 CHAPTER 16 ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Introduction

Marketing communications professionals are oft en accused of unethical behaviour. Business

practice and societal concerns sometimes clash, and certain marketing communications

practices are therefore perceived as ‘wrong’. In order to behave well and be perceived as a

‘good citizen’, and in their own long-term business interest, companies should follow ethical

standards and rules and apply them to their marketing communications practice. Among the

most debated ethical issues are stereotyping, targeting vulnerable groups, using controversial

messages and covert marketing. Indeed, marketing communications are oft en accused of

building and maintaining stereotypical gender roles, of deliberately using shocking images,

of relentlessly and inappropriately targeting children and of using techniques such as stealth

marketing, buzz marketing and brand placement that can be regarded as intrinsically decep-

tive or misleading. Unethical practices can be found in many marketing communications

tools: deceptive advertising, dishonest public relations, fraud in sales promotions, misleading

packaging and privacy-invading direct marketing and selling. To avoid negative consequences

for customers, laws and regulations have been formulated, and many countries and industries

have established self-regulation procedures and organisations to improve the ethical standards

of marketing communications practice. Companies themselves may go beyond that and

engage in corporate social responsibility programmes to position themselves as ethical and

as good citizens.

Ethics and marketing communications

Every society has certain moral and value standards that act as behavioural guidelines for

citizens: what is right and wrong in diff erent situations? A distinction should be made

between morals and ethics. Morals are beliefs or principles that individuals hold concerning

what is right and what is wrong. Morals direct people as they make decisions. Ethics a r e

principles that serve as operational guidelines for both individuals and organisations. Th ey are

related to moral feelings of right and wrong.^1 Ethics are generally not written down but rather

held in the social consciousness (attitudes and feelings) of an organisation or a population.^2

Ethics is thus the study and application of morality: those practices and activities that are

importantly right or wrong.

With respect to what is ethical or not, several approaches can be discerned.^3 A classical

distinction is the one between the deontological and the teleological approaches. Th e deontological

approach focuses upon duties. Some actions are intrinsically right or wrong. Th e teleological

approach focuses on consequences. Good or bad depends on what happens as a result of the

action. Th is is very much an ‘end justifi es the means’ approach and will lead to utilitarian

points of view such as selecting actions that can be expected to result in the greatest good to

the greatest number. Th e problem with a deontological approach is that it cannot handle

confl icts of duty. For instance, in wartime, an individual may have the duty to hide another

person from a hostile invader. At the same time, he or she has the duty to tell the truth about

it. On the other hand, a teleological approach cannot handle considerations of justice, i.e.

treating people as being of equal worth. McIntyre et al. developed a four-cell taxonomy based

on the deontological (idealism) and the teleological (relativism) principle. Situationists score

high in both relativism and idealism. Absolutists score low in relativism but high in idealism.

Subjectivists score high in relativism but low in idealism. Exceptionists score low in both

dimensions.^4

Other ethical principles are distributive justice and ordinary decency. According to

distributive justice , rewards are allocated in proportion to the contribution made to organ-

isational ends. Ordinary decency means that, for instance, lying, cheating and coercion are

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