Ethics in Advertising

Scientific Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 4.0, University of Redlands, course: Business Ethics, language: English, abstract: We know the purpose for advertising - to persuade a consumer to purchase product. The advertisement may entertain, or educate, but the main goal is to sell product. How do advertisements motivate a consumer purchase their products? Do they resort to sly tactics such as misleading claims, puffery, or little white lies to intrigue you? Are these strategies ethical? What side of the ethics fence do these strategies sit - Kantian or Aristotelian? What are the opinions of American marketers about ethics in advertising? The goal of this paper is to educate the reader about the ethics mindset of American advertising agencies and how they rationalize their decisions.