Is Advertising Ethical?

[creative_way]

 

In response to my past blog on advertising, in one of the comments someone raised an interesting question stating “Is it ethical to try to control people's behavior through advertising?" The key word is "try", in order for companies to promote their product they must make consumers aware that the product exists. The goal of the company is to introduce the item through advertising, and in turn generate sales; this is a common business tactic, especially when the Ad is geared to specific markets. Advertising allows consumers to have an actual visual of the product, and therefore encourages the consumer to purchase it. Each consumer has full control of their buying habits, if they like what they see and feel as though it has a hedonic value, or a utilitarian value then the consumer may be inclined to purchase the item. I am sure that we have seen commercials, billboards, etc. that are convincing and we like the concept of the product, however we choose not to purchase it. Everyone responds differently to advertisements, and in my opinion the company can only persuade which isn’t necessarily controlling a person’s behavior.