Consumers’ Perspective
While the article features eight principles of ethical marketing, it seems that consumers are most concerned about two of them. The first principle that they find to be important is the truthfulness of the information they receive through advertising. The principle identifies it as the importance of honest and ethical advertising in various media types. This fact is understandable since people do not want to be misled by any sort of information.
It is still a big issue that many people tend to suspect commercials for carrying the wrong information. The general reason for this concern is that companies receive huge revenues from selling their products and they wish to receive as much money as possible could make them sacrifice the ethical side of the question. Consumers are aware that advertisement producers are trying to hide as much information as possible if it is not regulated by any law.
Another principle that is important to consumers is the notion that their data will not be used by companies for commercial purposes. While some people are unaware that their online activity data is being collected by businesses, others show concerns and unwillingness to share this type of information. The issue has become a base for many website owners to include information about the use of cookies and their influence on the visitors’ privacy. While context advertising could be useful sometimes, people are often frustrated with the offerings of products and services they do not wish to discover. Technologies are rapidly developing, and nowadays there is even a concern that search engines reacting to voice may be collecting information that was merely discussed near a device.
Ethics Violations
While most aspects of ethical advertising are regulated by legislation, some companies ignore these rules. The most common problem of this sphere is cooperating with online bloggers by ordering them not to disclose that they are working for money. One of the most popular examples of such violations includes numerous beauty blogs where speakers, mostly female, discuss various cosmetic products that they use.
While some of them place the AD sign in the name of the post or video, many bloggers do not mention it due to the concern that this will turn away their audience. For instance, Zoella who is the most popular beauty blogger in the UK never states that any of her product reviews are advertisements, yet many reports claim that she is the highest-paid YouTube star in the industry of beauty blogging.
The danger of beauty blogging lies in the fact that it is considered the most popular among the teenage population. Bloggers usually do not disclose their revenues and show their lives as being similar to others. However, beauty bloggers discussed above often talk about the benefits of some high-end products that they tried and loved. Such reviews could make teenagers believe that, for example, buying mascara for 60 dollars is a normal investment that should be affordable to everyone.
This misconception could lead to family conflicts and the parents’ concern about regulating this field is understandable. Teenagers are highly influenced by the information they receive online, and the discussed issue here corresponds with one of the ethical advertisement principles that emphasize the importance of distinguishing between a commercial and a news post.