Ethical Dimensions in Advertising: A Perceptual Study

Advertising has often been the axis of debates. Opponents associate it with unrestrained materialism and manipulation. These debates alert perception and accommodation to important issues but fail to include those who ultimately serve as the most important arbiter of ethical practices i.e. the consumer. The book is based upon the premise that different people have different levels of approvals or disapprovals towards the ethical issues in advertising subject to their judgments. Hence it provides a new yardstick for the measurement of ethicality in advertising and its effectiveness. The issues covered are misleading aspects of advertising in form of puffery, deception and unfairness, phenomenon of surrogate advertising and regulatory aspects of advertising,etc. An insight has also been provided towards the other ethical issues like vulgarity, subliminal perceptions, stereotypes, etc. The study provides an implication to the advertisers, who are in the business of making profits, and leaving a word of caution for them to re-evaluate their communication strategies to come out with a new equation of advertising maintaining the balance of professionalism and ethics.