Advertising Ethics: The Use of Sexual Appeal in Chinese Advertising

With increasing social awareness of unethical advertisements in today's advertising, this study explores consumers' ethical judgements about the use of sexual appeals in advertising in a Chinese context by replicating LaTour and Henthorne's study. It specifically focuses upon responses on the Reidenbach-Robin multidimensional ethical scale, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions. The results show that sexual appeal was evaluated as the most frequent use in Hong Kong print advertising and they were also perceived as the most attractive instrument. Similar to LeTour and Henthorne's findings, regardless of respondent's gender, the use of a strong overt sexual appeal was not well received by Chinese consumers and resulted in less favorable attitude toward the ad itself and the purchase intention than using mild sexual themes. However, the degree of sexual content used in advertising has no direct influence on brand attitudes. Due to the conservative nature of Chinese culture, the advertisers should be careful in the use of sexual appeal for Chinese consumers.     

Ethics in Advertising Decisionmaking: Implications for Reducing the Incidence of Deceptive Advertising

A survey of 206 advertising professionals assessed the relative influence of four factors (ethics, legal considerations, business considerations, and anticipated approval of management/peers) on decision-making about advertising content and policy. Most professionals were influenced only by legal considerations; ethics exerted a relatively minor role. Age and length of professional experience were related to the factor that exerted the dominant influence on an individual's decisionmaking. Those who were youngest and had least professional experience were most influenced by business considerations. Professionals who were slightly older with slightly more experience were most influenced by legal considerations. Finally, those professionals who were the oldest and had the most experience were primarily influenced by ethical considerations. The results are used as basis for identifying specific actions in professional training, advertising agency management, and advertising regulation which have potential to reduce the incidence of deceptive advertising.     

Towards a New Paradigm in the Ethics of Women's Advertising

This paper identifies the ethical issues involved with women's advertising, and argues that ads can be successful in generating sales without portraying women as things or as mere sex objects, and without perpetuating various weakness stereotypes. A paradigm shift in advertising appears to be at hand. This new model replaces images of women as submissive or constantly in a need of alteration, with a move to reinstate beauty as a natural thing, not an unattainable ideal. This paper also reviews general ethical issues of the advertising industry, including: (1) that advertising equates the pursuit of material gain with human happiness; (2) that advertising pushes its own values, artificial or false as they may be, as to what is "good" for the consumer; (3) that advertising plays on physical appetites and the body; (4) that advertising strives to bypass rational thinking, by desensitizing the viewer and playing on group dynamics.     

Subliminal Embeds in Print Advertising: A Challenge to Advertisng Ethics

A sample of adult men and women was exposed to both comparison and individual brand advertisements under controlled conditions. Recall measurements were made for the brands being advertised on an immediate basis and twenty-four hours after exposure to the advertisements. Since different product classifications were promoted in the study, several implications are possible concerning the recall effectiveness of each type of advertisement and product brand.     

The Ethics of Food Advertising Targeted Toward Children: Parental Viewpoint

The children’s market has become significantly more important to marketers in recent years. They have been spending increasing amounts on advertising, particularly of food and beverages, to reach this segment. At the same time, there is a critical debate among parents, government agencies, and industry experts as to the ethics of food advertising practices aimed toward children. The␣present study examines parents’ ethical views of food advertising targeting children. Findings indicate that parents’ beliefs concerning at least some dimensions of moral intensity are significantly related to their ethical judgments and behavioral intentions of food advertising targeting children as well as the perceived moral intensity of the situation.     

Introduction to the Special Thematic Symposium on the Ethics of Controversial Online Advertising

The field of marketing and consumer ethics has evolved considerably over the past 20 years, yet research on specific areas of advertising ethics remains limited. This limitation persists despite developments in digital technologies, and the impact they have had on advertising practice generally and online advertising more specifically. Online media are becoming increasingly populated by advertising content, as consumers continuously navigate ever-evolving mediascapes. Thus, there is a need to examine the ethical issues associated with the use of controversial advertising online, as well as consumers’ responses to such ads. This special thematic symposium addresses this literature gap, which is at the intersection of consumer ethics, e-marketing, and controversial advertising. The two papers in the special thematic symposium present new research in this area, along with some initial ethical implications as well as potential for future research.     

Sexuality and Ethics in Advertising: A Research Agenda and Policy Guideline Perspective

Abstract

Sexuality in advertising is a major area of ethical concern, though surprisingly little is known about its effects or the norms for its use. The author suggests a framing perspective on these two issues that consists of (1) a research agenda concerning the alleged effects and morality of sexual appeals (i.e., teleological vs. deontological considerations) and (2) a set of ethics-based, policy guidelines for addressing these issues (i.e., choice enhancement vs. consumer protection). Applying this framing perspective, the author provides a basis for making ethical choices about the use of sexual appeals in advertising.     

Creating the Customer: The Influence of Advertising on Consumer Market Segments – Evidence and Ethics

For over half a century market segments have been considered objective groupings of individuals which marketers identify, understand, and target with advertising messages. The process of market segmentation has, therefore, occupied a position of moral neutrality. An increasingly popular method of segmentation is by consumer personality, with advertisers targeting messages to specific personality types. This paper explores personality segmentation, and presents empirical evidence to support the proposition that personality metrics that are used to assign individuals to segments may, in fact, be manipulable by advertising executions themselves. Quite apart from the implications that this has for the business efficacy of the segmentation process, the ethical implications – particularly as applied to children – are considerable.     

Advertising Facts and Advertising Illusions

The concept of low involvement has attracted considerable interest, particularly over the last ten years, but its implications f or advertising (strategy, execution and research) are still not clear. This paper reviews the low-involvement literature and attempts to define what is meant by the concept, predict when low involvement is likely to occur and identify its key determinants. The paper then reviews and assesses what the literature has to say about the specific implications for advertising strategy in high- and low-involvement situations and concludes that the potential and power of advertising in low-involvement situations have been misunderstood and underestimated.     

“限广令”后的中国广告业猜想

2011年11月28日,广电总局下发《〈广播电视广告播出管理办法〉的补充规定》,决定自2012年1月1日起,全国各电视台播出电视剧时,每集电视剧中间不得再以任何形式插播广告。本文基于这项规定,探讨今后中国广告的发展趋势,提出了六大变化猜想,并阐述这些变化对不同主体带来的多赢可能性的假设。     

消费主义时代和消费社会中广告功能的延伸及伦理困境

在西方消费社会,广告的功能开始延伸,不再仅是向消费者提供有关产品和企业的信息,更为重要的作用似乎是创造出消费欲望和消费者,而由此产生了有关广告操控消费者的伦理质疑。改革开放后,消费主义思潮开始进入中国,导致同样问题的出现。文章认为消费主义时代和消费社会中广告功能的延伸是社会文化因素交互作用的结果,单凭广告宣传是不可能制造无节制的消费欲望,并改变人们的价值观和生活方式的。因此,需从社会文化的角度系统地看待广告和消费主义之间的联系以及广告功能延伸和所引发的伦理问题,这样才能使社会成员以消费者的角色形成合力,共同抵制消费主义泛滥对社会生活的进一步侵蚀。     

Advertising Education

Abstract

The author asserts that the quality of advertising education in four year colleges and universities has improved with age. Graduate courses in the field of advertising have aided teachers into becoming more research oriented. Schools of business have moved their advertising programs into a management technique direction while journalism/communications programs have stayed more on the functional and creative sides.

Advertising education is stronger today than at any time in its brief history. yet there are weaknesses. Some claim that schools are still not giving a strong moral and social responsible base to our students. Educators feel that there is a lack of current material to use in the classroom. They also feel that there needs to be more campus cross-fertilization bringing students together with other disciplines.     

广告需求的变化与广告服务的转型

中国广告业应该如何发展？怎样面对中国自己的问题？中国是后发展的国家，在融入全球化过程当中，有很多问题、很多竞争是在同一个时间出现的。虽然中国广告业不是很成熟，但是最复杂的环境、最复杂的竞争在中国广告业还没有长大的时候已经出现了。在这种背景下会出现共识性迷失。我经常举芙蓉姐姐的例子，     

Offensive Advertising

Abstract

Prior literature regarding offensive advertising relates mainly to western cultures. No work has been done on this area in an Asian context. The research in this article reports on a survey of Singaporean consumers. The survey aimed to identify what types of products and appeals consumers find offensive in advertising, the reasons why they find the advertisements offensive, and how this offensive advertising may affect their purchase intentions. The results found that advertisements relating to chat-line services and sexual diseases were the most offensive, followed by advertisements for dating services. Levels of offensiveness were clearly related to demographic variables such as gender and age. In terms of reasons for offensiveness, consumers were most concerned by advertisements that had a sexual connotation or evoked unnecessary fear.Levels of offensiveness also affected purchase intentions. Based on the results, the article recommends that advertisers and their agencies should think more carefully about the demographic profile of their audiences, how this profile might impact their audiences ?sensitivity“ to potentially offensive advertising, and how this sensitivity should be used as a guide when making media and message decisions     

Advertising Myopia

This article points out a firm's advantages in promoting the generic product rather than the brand. Promoting the generic product—generic advertising—can lengthen the product's life cycle, increase per capita consumption of the product and expand the size of the market for the product. The authors discuss the types of situations in which generic advertising is used, and the reason that it is not used more extensively. They present a viable solution to this dilemma.