Marketing Communications

570 CHAPTER 16 ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Not only children, but also the elderly are sometimes victims of (tele)marketing fraud or

hard-sell pitches with puzzling details, e.g. lotteries, investment off ers and prize promotions.

Moreover, people in developing countries can be treated in an unethical way, for instance in

countries where there are fewer trade and product restrictions (e.g. tobacco, unsafe drugs).

Unethical use of marketing communications instruments

All marketing instruments can be used in a decent, ethical way, but some practices concern-

ing these instruments receive criticism because they are (deemed to be) unethical.

Advertising

Of all the marketing communications instruments, advertising is the one that receives most

criticism because of its alleged untruthful, deceptive and manipulative nature. For instance,

Sneddon argues that advertising as a whole spreads values that compromise both ‘deep’

autonomy (being an autonomous person) and ‘shallow’ autonomy (taking autonomous

decisions).^93 On the other hand, what psychological principle would explain that advertising

makes people do things against their will? Persuasion is a legitimate form of human inter-

action that all individuals and institutions perform and, as such, there is nothing unethical in

trying to persuade a person to buy a product or a service or to engage in a certain (buying)

behaviour. As already mentioned in one of the previous sections, advertising is oft en accused

of being off ensive and in bad taste, creating and perpetuating stereotypes, making people buy

things they do not really need (but who is to decide what people need?), and playing upon

people’s fears and insecurities, as in fear appeals.

believed children were influenced by advertising, but that they thought that they (the parents) had more influence

than ads and that there was a high level of acceptance (as part of modern life).^90 Nevertheless, many parents

appear to be actively mediating their children’s TV viewing behaviour. Many researchers, e.g. Grossbart and Crosby,

Nathanson, and Nathanson et al. , have already concluded that parents with negative attitudes towards TV advertis-

ing more strictly control their child’s viewing behaviour, indicating that they perceive these negative characteristics

as influencing children.^91 For instance, Chan and McNeal found that 89% of parents exercise some control over the

contents and time of TV viewing.^92

It is estimated that in the USA the average child sees more than 40 000 TV commercials a year and that advertisers

spend more than $12 billion per year to target the youth market.^94 This is attributed to the strong contribution of

children to the consumer economy. McNeal^95 estimated that children aged 14 years old and under make $24 billion

in direct purchases and influence $190 billion in family purchases. Ads for food during children programmes are

estimated to be 37% of all ads in the USA and 49% in the UK.^96 Furthermore, Lyna^97 claims that 97.5% of all food

commercials appearing on weekend morning TV and 78.3% of weekend programming are for unhealthy foods.

RESEARCH INSIGHT

Advertising to children and obesity

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