J4970 Strategic Campaign: Top Line Research Findings

Institute for Advertising Ethics | Interactive Discussion on the Importance of Advertising Ethics | Advertising Ethics as University Curriculum | Advertising Ethics: Wally Snyder's Rallying Cry for the Industry | Endorsement Resolution

By Wally Snyder

Student Assignments | Research Findings

Summary

During the Spring Semester 2009 Four Capstone student teams conducted primary and secondary research into the importance and stature of ethics in adverting. Collectively the groups studied the beliefs of consumers, marketers, and advertising majors. The primary research, which is summarized here, consisted of online surveys with follow-up interviews. While not representative (see survey methodologies) the work shows beliefs and attitudes that are consistent and worthy of follow-up surveys.

All three groups believe ethics in advertising to be very important for consumers and the advertising profession; advertising students held the highest level of belief in its importance. The groups also concurred in the belief that advertising is not as ethical as it should be. The students and consumer groups felt most strongly with marketers concurring that “it could use more improvement.” “Hot Button” issues to work on included: Advertising to Children; Advertising of Unhealthy or harmful products; Advertising that is invasive to privacy; Political Advertising; and direct to consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA). Solutions to advancing ethics in advertising included an industry wide code, drafted with care, and an enhanced advertising ethics curriculum on campus.

The Importance of Ethics in Advertising

Consumers, marketers and advertising majors all ranked the importance of advertising ethics as very high. Out of the 214 consumers surveyed+ 44.3% believe advertisers should be punished for producing unethical ads. The top three aspects that would make a company ethical are honesty, fairness and trust. Most of the interviewed consumers also claimed they would be more likely to buy the products featured in ads if the company was ethical. Also, honest advertising was the top ranked aspect that would make a company ethical (89.1%) followed by socially responsible (80.1%) and environmentally friendly (58.8%).

Of the marketers surveyed² 53% believe ethics is “very important” to professionals in the ad industry and 43% believe it is “somewhat important. “Building consumer trust” was seen by 42% of the sample as the greatest benefit from advertising ethics. Of the advertising majors surveyed+++ an overwhelming 86.4 % said advertising ethics was important to them and important to consumers. Reasons given included that people will pay more for an ethically produced product; will boycott an unethical one; and it is easy to access information on the internet.

How Ethical is advertising

Advertising received low marks from consumers, marketers and advertising majors. The majority of consumers surveyed (33.2%) did not trust advertising or believe it to be honest. With regard to consumer perception of prescription drug advertising (DTCA)⁴ the majority of respondents (61%) do not trust the information presented in the ads, and 44% have also viewed a DTCA ad that they knew was incorrect, misleading, or had left out information.

Most marketers expressed the current state of ethics in the advertising industry as “it could use more improvement”. Phrases like “secondary issue” and “not as good as it could be” were used to describe the current state along with concern that a declining economy and recession could cause more problems.

On a scale of 1 to 10 – with 1 being completely unethical and 10 being completely ethical – advertising majors provided a mean response of 5.86. “The average shows the poor image the advertising industry has.” (Comment of Student Team)

Of the advertising majors surveyed³ an overwhelming 86.4 % +said advertising ethics was important to them and important to consumers. Reasons given included that people will pay more for an ethically produced product; will boycott an unethical one; and it is easy to access information on the internet.

Advertising Issues to Tackle (“Hot Buttons”)

From the marketers point of view (close-ended), political advertising (more than half), targeting children and the elderly; and tobacco were seen as the most pressing ethical issues in advertising; multicultural and behavioral targeting not seen as significant.

The three ethical issues most prevalent to the advertising majors are advertising to children; Advertising of unhealthy or harmful products; and Advertising that is invasive to privacy – collaboratively accounted for over 75% of the responses. Notable also were “stealth marketing”, such as product placement, or other advertising that is hard for the customer to identify as advertising, and advertising with sensitivity to minority or gender groups (“Stereotyping”).

Other than expressing the top three general issues that would make a company ethical (honesty, fairness and trust), “Consumers don’t really understand what it means to be ethical.” However, individual answers to open-ended questions did include PETA and Dolce and Cabbana ads where women were displayed in sexual situations. Also, the high percentage of consumers surveyed who did not trust DTCA ads (61%) would indicate that this is a major area of ethical concern.

Solutions to Advance Advertising Ethics

75.6% of the consumers surveyed believed that advertising should have standards or a code for ethical advertising. In the follow-up phone interviews of marketing professionals, “All agreed that a blanket code would be a step in the right direction; however it was noted that much forethought is needed, and that those who ignore ethics would also ignore the code. Health care professionals interviewed in the DTCA survey said DCT ads should be held to different ethical standards than other advertised products. 81.8% of the advertising majors surveyed concluded that an Ethics in Advertising class would be useful for their education and knowledge of the industry.

Footnotes on Research Methodologies

1. Consumer research: Online survey on Survey Monkey followed by 13 personal interviews with open-ended questions. Demographics across all ages, but majority of survey respondents were 21-30 years old.
2. Marketers: Online survey with advertising executives obtained from Missouri School of Journalism alumni; follow-up phone interviews with interested professionals to clarify and speak more personally. There were 21 survey respondents from 16 different cities. Most prevalent respondents were account executives (6) and chief executives (6). The median of years spent in the field was 24.5 and the mean of years spent was 22.1 years.
3. Advertising Majors: Online survey directed to Advertising Students in the Missouri School of Journalism, Strategic Communications Majors – freshman to recent graduates, male and female.
4. DTCA Research: Online survey with 23 consumer respondents.