This document discusses ethics in advertising and unethical advertising practices. It begins by defining ethics and advertising. It then outlines some common unethical advertising techniques such as surrogate advertising, puffery, exaggeration, unverified claims, women stereotyping, using children, and unhealthy brand comparisons. The basic principles of ethical advertising are also provided. Specific examples of unethical Indian advertisements are discussed to illustrate these points.

2. EFFORTS BY:
ABEYSON JOSE
MOHIT PUROHIT
MD. IRSHAD
PUSHPENDER SINGH

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.
Advertising
Advertising is the promotion of a company’s products and
services carried out primarily to drive sales of the products
and services but also to build a brand identity and
communicate changes or new product /services to the
customers. Advertising has become an essential element
of the corporate world and hence the companies allot a
considerable amount of revenues as their advertising
budget.

4. Reasons for Advertising
• Increasing the sales of the product/service
• Creating and maintaining a brand identity or brand
image.
• Communicating a change in the existing product
line.
• Introduction of a new product or service.
• Increasing the buzz-value of the brand or the
company

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

6. Basic principles
• Decency
• Honesty
• Social Responsibility
• Truthful presentation
• Comparisons
• Imitation
• Safety and health
• Avoidance of Harm
• Environmental behaviour

7. Ways of unethical advertisement
• Surrogate advertisement
• Puffery
• Exaggeration
• Unverified claims
• Women stereotyping
• Women used as sex symbols for promoting
products
• Comparative advertisements
• Use of children in advertising

8. 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.

9. Puffery
• 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. WOMEN IN ADVERTISING

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

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

16. Women in advertising used as sex symbols

18. 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.

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

20. 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.

21. 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 thatunderlie how
advertising works.

22. Amul macho
Axe dark temptation
Vulgar Advertisements banned by I & B Ministry :-

23. Newspaper ads

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