section 1
Background: This assignment provides a review of the role of advertising in the workplace, impacts on consumers (and also when reviewing internal advertising, impacts on employees), and consider methods of evaluation from an ethical perspective.
Purpose: This assignment will allow you to recognize common themes and promotional efforts that are less than truthful and tactics, while also evaluating these tactics utilizing ethical standards that are generally viewed as ethical expectations in advertising.
Tasks:
1) Review the following video:
2) Review the following article:
MSG Management Study Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2020, from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/advertising-ethics.htm
3) Keeping in mind the following primary points from the article related to ethics in advertising:
• “… ethics in advertising means a set of well defined principles which govern the ways of communication taking place between the seller and the buyer”
• “An ethical ad is one which doesn’t lie, doesn’t make fake or false claims and is the limits of decency”.
• “Ethics in Advertising is directly related to the purpose of advertising…”
• Ethics “depends on what we believe”
a) Select one of the tactics presented in the video. Then, answer the following (letters b through f)
b) How does the tactic result in “miscommunication” between buyers and sellers?
c) Explain and discuss the fake claims, false claims, and/or how the advertising tactic is not “decent”
d) How does the promotional tactic selected take away from the main purpose of advertising, e.g. to highlight quality, effectiveness, value-added properties to one’s life, etc.
e) Do organizations have a “duty” to avoid these tactics, taking into consideration that ethics “depends on what we believe”? In other words, one commercial which may be offensive to one person may be fully acceptable to a larger group of consumers, or vice versa.
f) Finally, what are the implications of this overall topic on ethical advertising even on internal based communication that may be presented within an organization?
For example, suppose you are presented with an “ad” pertaining to an event occurring within your workplace or even a sale (such as a charity event or employee only discounted type of event), or a public service announcement promoting a certain area of interest. Should these “ads” still follow ethical standards or not, and why? What actions should be taken if an “ad” is found to be offensive to one, several or all employees in the workplace, or an employee finds that the “ad” goes against their personal beliefs?
APA or other specific formatting is not required.
(In terms of length, the overall response should be in the range of 300-500 words).
Section 2
Another important concept related to ethics concerns the topic of social responsibility and the questions regarding what is socially responsible behavior on the part of an organization, what are socially responsible actions and activities, and how do these actions and activities fulfill any expectations related to ethics.
Take a look at the Ted Talk (video) presented by Audrey Choi, “How to make a profit while making a difference” – it is located under this Module.
She addresses the question of whether or not global capital markets can “become catalysts for social change” and connects the differences that can be realized by investing in organizations that focus on socially responsible behavior.
What are your thoughts about this talk? What exactly is the interrelationship between social values and ethics? Is it possible for differences to be realized even through the smallest actions that we, particularly as employees, leaders, supervisors, etc. can take?
