CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND
The field of advertising has and continues to experience immense growth as a result of increased industrialisation and an ever popular consumerist culture. Like any profession, advertising practitionehrasve a hug e responsibility to their clients and Bovee (1994, p. 21) spells these responsibilities out as;
To differentiate products from advertisers’ competitors, to communicate product information, to expand product distribution, to increase brand preference and loyalty and/ or to reduce overall sales cost.
The activities of service professionals like doctors, lawyers, and bankers are often deeply connected to human beings giving rise to situations that pose potential ethical problems. Advertising practitioners, as service professionals are not exempted from thepsoetential e thical dilemmas (Hunt, Shelby and Chonko, 1987). Advertising practitioners are obliged to produce ads that are truthful and ethically appropriate. Failure to do so may gravely affect the credibility of the sponsoring organisation and morally harm the society. Advertising ethics is therefore defined by Cunningham (1999, p. 500) as;
What is right or goodthine cond uct of the advertising function.cIotnis cerned
with questions of what ought to be done, not just with whaegt al lly must be done.
The act of mixing facts and art in advertising communication must always be done taking advertising ethical principles into consideration (Sidhul et al, 2015). However, this is not always the case as suggested by Drumwright and Murphy (2009, p.86), who have indicated that, practitionearse generally une thical because the temptations of unethical behaviour often surpass
any ethical concerns. Putting ethics aside in the creation of ads has become easier because such provocative and unethical ads break through advertising clutter and achieve results (Sidhul et al, 2015).
Some ethical issues in advertising as asserted by Amoako, (2012, p.65) include;
Vulgarity/obscenity usedgato in consumers’ attention, misleading information
and deception, puffery, stereotypes, racial issues and controversial products such as alcohol).
Hyman, Tansley and Clark (1994, p. 5-15), also identifiediaclruc themes such as advertising of
‘health care’, ‘tobacco’ or ‘alcohol’ and also children advertising, racial discrimination, political advertising as well as the use of ‘fear’ and other ‘advertising appeals’ are some of the
controversiaul iss es in the advertising sector. Indeed, Burnett et al (2003,p. 33) exp ressed that,
advertising industry everywhere is receiving high numbers of ethical complaints from various stakeholders. Sidhul et al (2015, p.115), reinforces this point by stating that;
The advertising industry has been frequently criticized for putting out misleading or exaggerated claims in respect of product, goods and services advertised.
Taking an insight from academic literature on advertising ethics, the following views, conceptualization and negotiations on ethical issues were identified. Some practitioners had acknowledged the negative implications of unethical ads on society but did not assume moral responsibilities for them. Practitionewresre mos tly concerned with the legal aspect of the ads than the ethical aspect (Academy of Marketing Conference, 2013). Previous studies have also revealed that, practitioners viewed raising ethical concerns to advertisers (clients) as uncomfortable and bad for business. Therefore, the practitioners usually operated from ‘client is always right’ perspective (Drumwright and Murphey, 2004).
These reinforce the argument that, adherence to ethical guidelines and considerations in
advertising practice remains a critical challenge.
In Ghana, advertising regulatory bodies have provided practitioners with ethical guidelines to
guide themthien produ ction of ethically appropriate ads. Industry regulators such as the
Advertising Standards Committee (ASC) exist to ensure that advertisements conform to the
prevailing laws of Ghana as well as the code of ethics of the advenrgtispi rofession. The
Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) also seeks to promote the adoption of standards or best practices in the business relations between media owners, advertising agencies and advertisers. Every year, the AAG awards membeacrsross a ll sectors of the advertising industry for their ‘excellence’, ‘creativity’ and ‘outstanding innovative work’ through its awards scheme, known
as the Gong Gong Awards (Advertising Associationnoaf,
Gha
2016). The scheme nomination
includes categories such as radio, print, television, outdoor and digital innovation for alcoholic beverages, insurance, fashion, corporate services and many more. In June 2016, Ghana’s
advertising bill which is meant to help sanitize the advertising industry was preens ted to cabinet
for final approval andtraonnswmaird ssion to parliament for consideration and passage
(JoyOnline, 2016).
To ensure that the advertising industry remains credible and beianlefic to all its stakeholders,
particularly,gietts ataurdien ces, there must be concerted and consistent efforts from academia,
regulatory and pfero ssional bodies on the issue of ethics in advertising
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Consumers are exposed to many advertisements on a daily basis. The ethical concerns raised about some of these advertisements in turn raise queosntsi about the credibilit y and the social responsibility of the advertising profession itself. There exists some scholarly, academic dialogue about ethics in advertising, ranging from its sometimes offensive nature (Barnes and Dotson,
