Reaction Paper #4
JOU 165
Due October 1 by midnight
http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/3001
What are some of the advertising ethics issues in this article? Have you seen any examples of these in real life? Which do you think is the most important? Are there some ethical issues in advertising the author missed? If you were to write some guidelines for advertising ethics, what would they be?
Keep it to 600-700 words. Try to reference back to the readings when you can.
A few advertising ethical questions mentioned in this article include the issues of how we portray alchohol, tobacco,pharhmacauticals, condoms, and the message we send to kids. It also mentions product placement in movies and real life places. One real lifeinstance that I can recall took place at Jordan Creek mall in West Des Moines. A group of me and my friends were going to see Iron Man when two extremely hot girls wearing red bull t-shirts and mini skirts came up and started talking to us while we were in line for the movie. While talking to us about random stuff they then pulled out of their bags mini cans of redbull with promotional tags on them for some drink redbull website. They handed us the cans and dissapeared like that then moved on to another group of guys. Over two years later i got roped into going to that twilight movie with my girlfriend and while in line this time with my girlfriend similar redbull girls passed us right by and went to a group of guys infront of us.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important ethical issue in advertising is how we portray things to kids. Kids are easily swayed to get things they see on television especially junk food, video games, and other things that are ok in moderation but they definately do not promote the healthiest of lifestyles. The author did a good job and hit a large amount of ethical issues some which i did not even think about like product placement. If i was to write some guidelines i would allow for little advertising of alchohol especially beer. I would ban beer commercials altogether. In the article the author says this: Advertising, like human beings, lives where Reason meets Desire. Years ago, The Coca-Cola Company invented a better product. No consumer product had ever been so thoroughly tested with so many consumers. This new Coke was provably much better. But consumers not only didn't buy it, they demonstrated against it. Because a lot of what they loved about "real" Coke wasn't inside the bottle. It was the idea of Coke and their experiences with it and how those experiences were connected to so much of what we imagine life in America should be like. Advertising isn't just about the things we buy. It's about how we feel about things, including ourselves. That's what makes it interesting. He goes on to say how 80 percent of Americans feel better about advertiisng from companies that are alligned with a good or beneficial cause. Two thirds of Americans would be willing to switch to a brand that had a good cause they are promoting. If all companies would have some sort of beneficial tie in ethics and standards would be raised. The article really summed up how a lack of ethical standard in advertisng is demonstrated.