This document discusses ethical issues that can arise in advertising. It provides examples of unethical advertising practices such as misleading claims, stereotyping, and using children to promote unhealthy products. Specifically, it analyzes cases where advertisements for Maggie soup, Axe deodorant, and Dettol kitchen cleaner were found to make misleading health claims or promote unrealistic expectations. The document also discusses common unethical practices like surrogate advertising, puffery, exaggeration, and unhealthy brand comparisons between competitors like Horlicks and Complan. Overall, the document examines how ethics is an important consideration in advertising and provides guidance on upholding principles of truth, social responsibility and avoiding harm.

1. Presented by: Amit Gehi

2. INTRODUCTION
• In this era of globalization and deregulation,
advertising has acquired a new status.
• As a matter of fact, advertising creates
employment opportunities, provides
information regarding the developments taking
place in the society, contributes to economic
growth, and provides information about
products and services available in the market
which helps in taking buying decisions.

3. Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks
to address questions about morality; that
is, about concepts such as good and
bad, right and wrong, justice, and
virtue.

4. HOW ETHICAL ISSUES ARISE IN ADVERTISING
An advertisement of Nestle India Ltd (Maggie healthy
soup) claimed that “Happy Heart” “Healthy Soup”.
The claim created an impression that consumption of
Maggie soup leads to better heart and health, while on
testing by independent agency, it has been found that it
contains high levels of salt which releases sodium into
body which in turn, causes hypertension and high blood
pressure instead of good heart and health.
Therefore, on complaint, ASCI declared the
advertisement as case of misleading by implication and
ambiguity. Therefore, Nestle India Ltd assured ASCI to
modify its advertisements.

5. Advertisement is considered unethical in the
following situations:
o When it has degraded or underestimated the
substitute or rival's product.
o When it gives false or misleading information on
the value of the product.
o When it fails to give useful information on the
possible reaction or side effects of the product. And
o When it is immoral.
UNETHICAL ADVERTISING

6. BASIC PRINCIPALS OF ADVERTISING
• Decency
• Honesty
• Social Responsibility
• Truthful presentation
• Comparisons
• Imitation
• Safety and health
• Avoidance of Harm
• Environmental behavior

7. ADVERTISING AND UNTRUTHFUL OR DECEPTIVE
General mistrust of advertising
among consumers. Many do not perceive
ads as honest or believable
General mistrust of advertising
among consumers. Many do not perceive
ads as honest or believable
Abuses involving sales promotions such as
contests, sweepstakes, premium offers
Abuses involving sales promotions such as
contests, sweepstakes, premium offers
Unethical and/or deceptive practices
involving mail order, telemarketing and
other forms of direct marketing
Unethical and/or deceptive practices
involving mail order, telemarketing and
other forms of direct marketing
Internet scams and abusesInternet scams and abuses

8. • Surrogate advertisement
• Puffery
• Exaggeration
• Unverified claims
• Women stereotyping
• Women used as sex symbols for promoting
products
• Comparative advertisements
• Use of children in advertising
WAYS OF UNETHICAL ADVERTISEMENT

9. SURROGATE ADVERTISING
Surrogate advertising is prominently seen in cases where
advertising a particular product is banned by law.
Advertisement for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are
injurious to heath are prohibited by law in several countries
and hence these companies have to come up with several other
products that might have the same brand name and indirectly
remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same
brand Common examples include:
Fosters and Kingfisher beer brands, which are often seen to
promote their brand with the help of surrogate advertising.

11. PUFFERY ADVERTISING
• Puffery as a legal term refers to
promotional statements and claims that
express subjective rather than objective
views, such that no reasonable person
would take literally.
• A two-year old might believe that polar
bears enjoy sipping Coca-Cola, but we know
better .

13. What do you think on this one? To me, there are two instances of
puffery here: "Serving the Best" and the actual brand of "Seattle's Best."
I'd say it is fairly obvious why these two phrases were chosen --
Starbucks is the coffee king of Seattle. So what better way to try and
compete than make your brand claim that there is nothing better out
there. Both of these claims are puffery, however, because -- based on
my simple working definition above -- neither claim can be positively
proved or disproved, or they are simply opinions.

15. EXAGGERATION
• Using false claims in the advertisements about the
product.
• For example:-Ghari detergent - “Pehle Istemaal kare
phir vishvaas kare.”, Tide detergent – “White ho to
Tide ho.”, Vodafone Essar – “Wherever you go our
network follows.”
White ho to
Tide ho.
One Drop Challenge Wherever you go our
network follows.

17. UNVERIFIED CLAIMS
• It includes advertisements of “energy drinks” which
tells us about the number of vitamins and how they
help children to grow strong and tall.
• There is no way of verifying these false claims.
• For example:-Horlicks, Maltova, Tiger biscuits.

19. WOMEN IN
ADVERTISING

20. Women are generally associated with household works
and is not supposed to be a good decision maker which
contributes to women stereotyping.
WOMEN STEREOTYPING

21. Women shown as doing domestic work which
reflects stereotype image of women.

23. Women in advertising used as sex symbols

25. Amul macho
Axe dark temptation

26. UNHEALTHY BRAND COMPARISONS
• Nowadays advertisers are engaged in unhealthy
brand comparison with the help of advertising.
• Such comparisons create problems and confusions
for the right choice of the product as far as
audience are concerned.
• Example can be cited of colgate and pepsodent
toothpaste.

27. Colgate Vs Pepsodent
Complan Vs Horlicks
Coca cola Vs Pepsi

28. CHILDREN IN ADVERTISING
• Children are easily
persuaded and have a
large pull on today's
markets, as is known by
all advertisers, even ones
who do not intend for
their products to be
consumed by children.

29. Children's TV Watching BehaviorChildren's TV Watching Behavior
Children ages 2-11
watch an average of
22 hours of TV per
week and see 30,000
commercials per year
Children ages 2-11
watch an average of
22 hours of TV per
week and see 30,000
commercials per year
80% of all advertising
targeted to children
falls in four
product categories:
Toys, cereal, candy &
fast food restaurants
80% of all advertising
targeted to children
falls in four
product categories:
Toys, cereal, candy &
fast food restaurants

30. CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AS TARGET GROUPS
The children’s market where resistance to advertising
is weakest is the “pioneer for ad creep”.
” Kids are among the most sophisticated observers of ads.
They can sing the jingles and identify the logos,
and they often have strong feelings about products.
What they generally don't understand, however, are the
issues that underlie how advertising works.

31. Advocates Argue That Children:Advocates Argue That Children:
Marketers Argue Children:Marketers Argue Children:
Lack the knowledge and skills
to evaluate advertising claims
Lack the knowledge and skills
to evaluate advertising claims
Cannot differentiate
between programs and
commercials
Cannot differentiate
between programs and
commercials
Must learn through
socialization
Must learn through
socialization
Must acquire skills needed to
function in the marketplace
Must acquire skills needed to
function in the marketplace
PERSPECTIVES ON ADS FOR CHILDREN

33. NEWSPAPER ADS

34. A wine bottle that is considered ethically wrong because the lorry may have to move
to certain places where drinking is unethical

35. AXE ADVERTISEMENT
Another Example of AXE a product of HUL, Vaibhav Bedi had
been using AXE Deodorant for the past seven years, but
didn’t able to grab the girls attention.
Axe advertisements suggest that the products help men in
instantly attracting women.
In what could prove to be a major marketing and legal
embarrassment for Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a 26-
year-old man has filed a case against the FMCG company,
which owns the Axe brand of men grooming products, for
‘cheating’ and causing him ‘mental suffering’.
Vaibhav Bedi, the petitioner, also surrendered all his used,
unused and half-used deodorant sprays, perfume sticks and
roll-ons, anti-perspirants, aftershaves, body washes,
shampoos, and hair gels to the court, and demanded a
laboratory test of the products and narcotics test of the brand
managers of Axe

38. RECKITT BENCKISER’S DETTOL KITCHEN AD
TAKES ON HUL’S VIM

39. • Reckitt Benckiser, the launching commercial for its
Dettol Kitchen dishwashing and kitchen cleaning
gel shows rival Hindustan Unilever’s Vim dishwash
liquid clearly, in a move that may trigger a new
advertising war between the two European
multinationals. Skirmishes between the two firms
have been veiled in the past, although both have
repeatedly taken each other to court and
advertising watchdog Advertising Standards
Council of India (ASCI).

40. • “Such ads gives a very strong message
psychologically that it’s not just another product
and they can compete with the market leader.
While HUL almost has a monopoly in the segment,
there could be more action now in an otherwise
dull segment,” In general, the consumer
complaints council code allows ads to show a rival
brand as long as the claims made in the ad are
fact-based,”. Reckitt Benckiser has positioned
Dettol Kitchen as a ‘complete kitchen cleaner’, for
use as a dish-washing gel and cleaning other
kitchen surfaces like sinks and slabs.

41. HORLICKS VS COMPLAN
• The ad started with a scene inside the classroom
where the teacher is taking the attendance.
• The teacher calls out " Calcium" then a group of
students raise their hands, then she calls out " Iron
" another group raises their hands.
• Then the voice over talks about the deficiency of
nutrients seen in kids.
• Then comes the critical part, a Doctor ( model)
comes to the picture and talks about 23 vital
nutrients that is necessary for the growth and
claims that these nutrients are present in HORLICKS.

42. • Horlicks is trying to negate the core
differentiation of Complan .
• Complan since its inception has been harping on
the 23 vital nutrients. Now Horlicks is trying to
create parity by claiming the same property.
• Complan has never been so aggressive and
blunt.

45. RIN VS TIDE
• This is the first time that HUL has directly
compared Tide with Rin. The Ad even have the
tagline "Rin offers Better whiteness than Tide".
P&G has took HUL to court over this ad. This ad
was timed to coincide with the long weekend
so that HUL could play the ad before the Court
hearing.

46. UNETHICAL ADVERTISING IN CASE OF RIN
• Now the outcome of the ad war will be that HUL will
be retrained by ASCII or the Court from further
playing the ad .
• It means that Rin had adapted an unethical means
against the competitor which will cause an
unwarranted blemish on the brand reputation.
• Second outcome is that it will encourage Tide to be
more aggressive in the market. Tide now has been
officially and publically acknowledged as the
competitor for Rin.

47. COKE VS PEPSI
• Both made fun of their respective
advertisements. (Eg: Main Youngistaan se aaya
hun)
• Pouching of Employees from both sides
• Making fun of celebrities used in advertisement.
(Eg: Official Drink & Not an Official Drink)
• Mostly in advertisement of Sprite & Mountain
Dew.