558 CHAPTER 16 ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING COMMUNICATIONSTh ere is a decades-old debate concerning whether marketing communications mirror
or shape society and whether the alleged criticisms are warranted. Th ose who claim that
marketing communications shape society argue that, through marketing’s persuasiveness
and creativity, it creates a culture of consumption and materialism and overspending. It
drives up the cost of products; it is used to sell inferior products and products that are not
good for us (such as alcohol and tobacco); it sets unrealistic expectations, is done in bad taste
and creates visual pollution (e.g. sex and violence used to gain attention to the message).
Finally, it imposes American culture on other cultures. Th ose who say marketing commu-
nications mirror society claim that marketing’s persuasiveness is largely overestimated. Some
claim that overspending is endemic in many societies and not just because of marketing.
Also banks and consumer credit practices are to blame. Marketing may well emphasise
materialism, but is materialism necessarily wrong? Moreover, out of the thousands of
messages that people see, only a few are remembered; nine out of ten new product introduc-
tions fail; companies spend a lot of money on marketing research to fi nd out what consumers
want, and then make and off er it. Most companies want loyal customers, and selling an
inferior product is the best way to lose customers. Emerging social consciousness about
the environment has led marketing communications to integrate this issue and argument
into marketing campaigns and not vice versa. Marketing communications professionals go
to a great deal of eff ort to reach only those consumers that they expect will be interested
in the product and the message. ‘Freedom of speech’ advocates will argue that there is no
need to establish standards of good taste and morality in marketing communications. Most
of the time, marketing costs are only a small percentage of the selling price, and marketing
increases competition which, in turn, lowers prices. Furthermore, for many people a product
has an objective and a psychological value (for instance, a shirt of a famous soccer player
is expensive, but some people like to pay extra money for the additional psychological
benefi t). On the other hand, people are free to choose not to pay the extra money for
psychological value. Probably, the truth is between these extremes: if marketing communica-
tions do not work, that would imply that all marketing investments are useless; if marketing
communications work all the time with everyone, it means consumers do not have a
conscious will.^8
Th e notion of social acceptability changes over time and varies from one culture or coun-
try to another. For instance, a US study among college students in 2003 showed that they
had less salient ethical concerns about advertising than in a similar study 25 years previously.
Th is could be due to increased cynicism and scepticism on the part of the generation
Y consumers that leads to lower expectations about ethicality in advertising. However,
students still seemed to be equally critical, and questioned advertising and its truthfulness:
65% believed that advertising does not present a true picture of products, 45% said that
advertising is too misleading and 57% that it was too exaggerated.^9 Fam and Waller
interviewed 1014 students in four Asian countries about the deliberate use of controversial
and off ensive images in advertising that may off end some people and studied what makes
ads controversial. Th ey found that what makes people fi nd images off ensive is related to
cultural characteristics. For instance, in collectivistic cultures, what could disrupt the har-
mony of society is considered to be very unethical. In more religious cultures or cultures that
adhere to Confucian dynamism, higher ethical and moral standards are upheld.^10 A US study
among 235 marketing professionals revealed that several cultural characteristics determined
marketers’ perceptions of the role of ethics and social responsibility in the overall success of
the fi rm. Idealism, the presence of corporate ethical values, uncertainty avoidance and
Confucian dynamism had a positive eff ect on the perceived role of ethics, while relativism
and power distance had a negative impact.^11 Not all individuals can even agree on what might
create off ence. It is in the areas of taste and decency that most diffi culty arises in defi ning
ethical marketing communications.^12M16_PELS3221_05_SE_C16.indd 558M16_PELS3221_05_SE_C16.indd 558 6/6/13 8:59 AM6/6/13 8:59 AM