Ethics and Social Responsibility in Marketing: An Examination of the Ethical Evaluation of Advertising Strategies

Controversies over the ethical implications of advertising have existed since its creation. The purpose of this research is to examine the ethical judgments of advertising and marketing practitioners with an experimental design that manipulates three critical variables of interest: individual autono...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business research 1997-06, Vol.39 (2), p.107-118
Main Authors: Nwachukwu, Saviour L.S, Vitell, Scott J, Gilbert, Faye W, Barnes, James H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Ethics
Professional ethics
Social responsibility
Sovereignty
Statistical analysis
Studies
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Summary:Controversies over the ethical implications of advertising have existed since its creation. The purpose of this research is to examine the ethical judgments of advertising and marketing practitioners with an experimental design that manipulates three critical variables of interest: individual autonomy, consumer sovereignty, and the nature of the product. Respondents generally rated ads targeted at individuals who are not autonomous (mature) as less ethical than ads targeted at those who are perceived as autonomous. Similarly, ads targeted at those with low sovereignty were perceived as less ethical than ads aimed at consumers perceived to have high sovereignty. Finally, ads for harmful products were perceived to be less ethical than ads for nonharmful products. Thus, all three variables play a significant role in terms of the ethical judgments of ads.
ISSN:0148-2963
1873-7978
DOI:10.1016/S0148-2963(96)00146-4