Ethics Truth

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D M S Lalitha Kala Maha Samstana(Affiliated to Karnataka Open University Mysore)

A Synopsis on

Ethics and Truth in Advertising

Submitted by

M B Chandra Shekhar

Under the guidance of

Guide

Sri Jayaraj ChikpatilMFA, M.Phil.

Dean

Prof V B Hiregoudar

2011-12


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Table of content

1. Statement of Research 01

2. Introduction 02

3. Need for the study 03

4. Objectives of the study 04

5. Definition of Advertisement 05

6. History of Advertising 06

7. Importance of Advertising 07

8. Ethics in Advertising 08

9. Truth in Advertising 09

10. Legal Aspects of Advertising 11

11. Conclusion 12


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Statement of Research

Research Proposal

A Study on whether there are Ethics and Truth in Advertising

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Introduction

Ethics and Truth are closely interlinked concepts and therefore it is essential to

analyze them in detail separately.

Ethics is a set of moral principles, norms or values. It is a branch of socialscience dealing with good and bad and hence moral duties and responsibilities

of an individual as a social and rational animal. In other words, ethics is

concerned with those values that determine the moral conduct in a given group

or community. Moral principles are the rules or the standards of what is wrong

or right. Therefore morality deals with right or wrong conduct. Here the word

Morality is comprehensive than the term ethics because moral values include

ethical values but opposite is not true. It is true that one which is right is always

good and one which is wrong is always bad. For example: fooling others is wrong

and therefore bad being honest is right and therefore good.

Truly speaking, it is not easy to define the term truth as it is not easy to define

the term truth as it is the most elusive one. The more we try to get to it, the more

it becomes a mirage right from the time immemorial, the entire world is in search

of truth; yet no one knows about its nature and its whereabouts; It is the greatest

philosophical controversy. Then what is truth?

Then what is the relationship between advertising and these terms namely,

ethics and morality? It is established fact that advertising is psychological social

and business process of persuading the people to buy products or services. The

test of its success is that it results in increased sales and increased share in themarket and profits. Advertising gets aggressive and acrimonious due to ever

increasing competition; so each advertiser wants to excel his rival in techniques

of spending on advertising. In the process of acute and cut-throat competition,

there are chances of discounting truth to succeed in the art of making multiplied

sales and profits. However advertiser has the social and moral obligation towards

the consumers because it is the consumer who pay to the last rupee of

advertising expenditure. That is why, it has to be right so that it is good. Good

advertisement does not mean both effective and honest. It means that right

advertisement is good advertisement. A right advertisement is one which is just

and true. It is proper and appropriate.

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Need for the study

As the student of Applied Art and the professional who are in advertising field it

makes us mandatory to know the extent of truth and ethics in advertising. Truth

and Ethics in advertising makes one sober in dealing with the client, customers

and those who are influenced by advertising without affecting his business.

The Legal aspects of advertising also upholds the truth and ethics in advertising.

With these highlights the consumer, retailer, producer, company, industry

collectively everyone has to know the truth and ethics in advertising since

everybody are influenced by the advertising from different media to procure the

products which he uses daily to satisfy his needs. Since everybody has the moral

and social responsibility, he cannot afford to be dishonest and this demands

everyone to know the truth and ethics in Advertising.

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Objectives for the study

It is commercial honesty that prevails than the absolute honesty. One need to

know the difference between the two to avoid the confusion within and the

society inlarge.

To study the Truth and Ethics in its absolute and commercial aspects in

advertising.

To develop the sense of commercial honesty and absolute honesty to

avoid conflict within oneself.

Influence of Truth and Ethics on the Economic Health of our country.

The study of legal responsibility which upholds the judicial truth which is

another side of the coin of morality.

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Definition of Advertisement

N H Borden, writing in the Economic Effects of Advertising defines advertising

thus: Advertising includes those activities by which visual or oral messages are

addressed to the public for the purposes of informing them and influencing them

either to buy merchandise or services or to act, or be inclined, favourably towardsideas, institutions or persons featured. As contrasted with publicity and other

forms of propaganda, advertising messages are identified with the advertiser

either by signature or by oral statement. In further contract to publicity,

advertising is a commercial transaction involving payment to publishers or broad

casters and others whose media are employed.

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Importance of Advertising

Commercial Importance

Advertising being sponsored messages, the manufactures and traders have to

live up to the claims made by them and hence the same result in commercial

innovations and continuous improvements in quality.

Economic Importance

Advertising helps to increase the demands of products and consequent sale of

larger quantities which stimulate economics of production. This tends to reduce

the cost of a product per unit, the advantage of which ultimately goes to the

public at large in the form of lower prices. Similarly, the advertising revenue

subsidizes the price of a news paper and helps to bring in better sponsored

television and radio programmes, for the benefit of people

Social Importance

Governement Departments, Public Sector Organisations and school institutions

are able to reach the people only through advertising for popularization of health

care measures, family planning, smoking hazards, elimination of drug abuses,

admission to educational courses, employment, etc.

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Ethics in Advertising

Ethics is a set of moral principles, norms or values. It is a branch of social

science dealing with good and bad and hence moral duties and responsibilities

of an individual as a social and rational animal. In other words, ethics is

concerned with those values that determine the moral conduct in a given groupor community. Moral principles are the rules or the standards of what is wrong

or right. Therefore morality deals with right or wrong conduct. Here the word

Morality is comprehensive than the term ethics because moral values include

ethical values but opposite is not true. It is true that one which is right is always

good and one which is wrong is always bad. For example: fooling others is wrong

and therefore bad being honest is right and therefore good.

Ethics Defined

The set of rules, principles and beliefs about right and wrong, good and bad,

justice and injustice, duty and obligation which governs peoples behavior, or

which they believe ought to govern their behavior.

Then what is the relationship between advertising and these terms namely,

ethics and morality? It is established fact that advertising is psychological social

and business process of persuading the people to buy products or services. The

test of its success is that it results in increased sales and increased share in the

market and profits. Advertising gets aggressive and acrimonious due to ever

increasing competition; so each advertiser wants to excel his rival in techniques

of spending on advertising. In the process of acute and cut-throat competition,there are chances of discounting truth to succeed in the art of making multiplied

sales and profits. However advertiser has the social and moral obligation towards

the consumers because it is the consumer who pay to the last rupee of

advertising expenditure. That is why, it has to be right so that it is good. Good

advertisement does not mean both effective and honest. It means that right

advertisement is good advertisement. A right advertisement is one which is just

and true. It is proper and appropriate.

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Truth in Advertising

Truly speaking it is not easy to define the term truth as it is the most elusive one.

The more we try to go near to it, the more it becomes a mirage. Right from the

time immemorial, the entire world is in search of truth; yet no one knows about its

nature and its whereabouts. Then what is truth? For an ordinary man truth meansfacts; The events that have happened or taken place over a period of time. This

common mans truth is same as Judicial truth. Judicial truth is the content of the

swear taken by each entering the witness-box in the court of law. It runs as: The

whole truth and nothing but truth. Here truth means all the facts and nothing but

truth means no mixing of lies with the facts.

Truth is vital to the sound economic health of advertising industry. The

effectiveness of advertising, as a tool of promotion, vanishes if the people begin

to believe that advertisements are false or wisely designed to fool them. No

advertiser can fool all the consumers of all the time. Unfortunately, the credibilityof advertising has been under criticism for decades. They are of the opinion that

social stature and image of advertising would improve if advertisement were not

truthful. The image is not really one of trust and appreciable because of five

reason pointed out by professor E J Kottman.

1. Not all the advertisements are truthful advertising image because human being

is a generalizing animal goes straight to the general from a particular case.

2. Most persons Intellectuals and critics alike do not make difference between

factual statements and value judgments.

3. The meanings which people ascribe to advertisements are frequently different

from those stated or implied. In other words, people infer notions or formulate

their own propositions that are untrue or unbelievable and conclude that it is the

advertising that is untrue.

4. Each advertisement appears to be full of contradictions, either stated implied

or inferred. Thus each producer says his product is the best. In fact, it can not be.

This makes the consumers to take them at discount.

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5. Much of the advertisement fanfare about the trivial, particularly of all products

or nation-wide scale such as soft drinks, cosmetics, soaps, drugs etc. It attempts

to make the insignificant seem significant, and is no doing, earns for advertising a

kind of pseudo image.

For an average man, truth means facts; the events that have happened or takenplace over a period of time. It is same as Judicial truth. This Judicial truth is not

applicable to the world of advertising. That is why no advertisement gives the

total picture of the product or service. It presents only the brighter side

concealing the defects. It is commercial honesty that prevails than the absolute

honesty. The different forms of this commercial honesty are

1. Facts exaggerated

2. Facts perverted

3. Total lies

Since the advertiser has the moral and social responsibility, he cannot afford to

be dishonest. The main reasons for this are

1. That his reputation is at stake

2. That he cannot take undue advantage of truth and faith put in him by the

society

3. He has legal responsibility which is another side of the coin of morality

4. That the consumers are getting organized

5. That truth never fails, but it prevails

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Legal aspects of creative advertising

The Sachar commission which was appointed by the Government of India for the

purpose of revising the companies act and the MRTP Act had said in its report.

The objection taken is not to the advertisement of the product which it may be

necessary to do in order to acquaint the public with the articles. What is,however, insisted on is that there is an obligation on the seller, namely, that if he

advertises, he must speak the truth. The commission had named, in its report,

many sales promotion methods which were found to be deceptive. The

commission had recommended in its report that the following acts of sellers

should be declared as untraded practices:

(a) Misleading advertisements and false representation a seller should not

represent falsely that the goods are of a particular standard, quality, grade,

composition, style or model, and that the re-built, second hand goods are new

goods.

(b) Offering of gifts or prizes with the intention of not providing them and

conducting promotional

contests.

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Conclusion - Are there ethics and the truth in advertising

Ethics and truth which are closely interlinked concepts. Ethics which is a branch

of social science which deals with what is good and bad and hence moral values

and responsibilities of an individual and a society has to be uphold. Speaking

from this angle, advertiser has moral responsibility that it is good. Goodadvertisement does not mean effective but one which is right. Right

advertisement is one which is just the true, proper and appropriate.

For a common man, truth implies facts the events that have taken place over a

period of time which is same as Judicial Truth. This Judicial Truth is not

applicable to the world of advertising. That is why no advertisement gives the

total picture of the product or service. It presents only the brighter side

concealing the defects. It is commercial honesty that prevails than the absolute

honesty. Since the advertiser has the moral and social responsibility, he cannot

afford to be dishonest where in his and the company reputation will be at stake.

By taking a small steps of knowing the importance of truth and ethics he will be in

advantage over others who does not know about the differences between these

terminologies and how to follow it. The person follows the rule of the land by

following the legal procedures which is enforced on us as legal responsibility

which is another side of the coin is morality. By this different aspects we come to

know the real truth that never fails, but it prevails

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Ethics Truth

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