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The Ethics of False Advertising

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Melissa Pacifico , University at Albany, State University of New York Follow Kaylie Johnson , University at Albany, State University of New York Follow Phillip O'Meara , University at Albany, State University of New York Follow

The Press: Freedom, Bias, Ethics II

Lecture Center 22

3-5-2019 3:15 PM

3-5-2019 4:15 PM

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Business, Communication

False advertisement, the use of misleading and untrue information to push a consumer product, is an unethical marketing ploy that has tricked consumers since the beginning of the consumer business industry. With the modern emergence of social media, consumers are now vulnerable than ever to falling victim to these unethical deceptive representations. The ‘Fyre Festival’ documentaries that recently premiered on both Netflix and Hulu are a perfect example of modern day false advertising mixed with the use of unethical social media influencer advertising. In this research project we aim to uncover the significance of unethical advertising and research the results of both ethical and unethical advertising through the examination of four major companies who have been accused of using this tactic. The four companies we will be analyzing are Fyre, Groupon, Hydroxycut, and Redbull, since they are some of the well-known false advertising cases in the United States over the past few years. The goal of our research is to discover whether or not society falls for false advertising and how influencers and companies utilize unethical marketing to lure in consumers or followers. We will focus on four instances of false advertising and will understand how consumers were tricked into spending their money on a certain product, or going on a trip. We will analyze the marketing methods and tactics from each company and examine the trends that we find. We will be looking in depth at each lawsuit and analyze the results of both ethical and unethical advertising.

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Ethics in Advertising – It’s Importance and Effectiveness

Last updated on: January 24, 2024

In today’s consumer-driven world, advertising plays a significant role in shaping our perceptions, influencing our choices, and driving economic growth. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Ethical considerations in advertising have gained prominence as businesses strive to strike the right balance between persuasive marketing and responsible messaging. This article delves into the realm of ethics in advertising, exploring its importance, key principles, and real-world implications.

Table of Contents

What are Ethics in Advertising?

Ethics in advertising refer to the moral principles and standards that govern the conduct of advertisers and their communication with consumers. It involves ensuring that advertising messages are truthful, respectful, fair, and responsible, with a focus on protecting consumers’ interests and promoting societal well-being.

The Importance of Ethics in Advertising

Ethics in advertising hold immense significance for several reasons. Firstly, it fosters trust between advertisers and consumers. When advertisements are perceived as truthful, transparent, and respectful, consumers are more likely to develop positive attitudes towards brands and make informed purchasing decisions.

Secondly, ethical advertising contributes to the overall reputation of a company or industry. Advertisers who prioritize ethical practices not only attract loyal customers but also gain credibility and goodwill from the public. In contrast, unethical advertising can damage a brand’s image and lead to long-term negative consequences.

Transparency and Honesty in Advertising

Transparency and honesty are fundamental principles of ethical advertising. Advertisers should ensure that their claims are substantiated, avoiding false or misleading statements. Clear disclosures regarding product features, limitations, and potential risks must be provided to consumers. By maintaining transparency, advertisers establish credibility and build long-term relationships with their audience.

Avoiding Stereotypes and Offensive Content

Ethical advertising refrains from perpetuating stereotypes or using offensive content that may demean or marginalize individuals or communities. Advertisers should strive for inclusivity, embracing diversity in their campaigns and promoting positive social values. By avoiding stereotypes and offensive content, advertisers create an environment that celebrates and respects the diversity of their audience.

Respecting Consumer Privacy

Respecting consumer privacy is another vital aspect of ethical advertising. Advertisers must obtain consent when collecting personal information and ensure the secure handling of data. Transparency about data usage and providing opt-out mechanisms empower consumers to control their personal information, fostering trust and maintaining ethical standards.

Social Responsibility in Advertising

Ethical advertising encompasses social responsibility, where advertisers consider the broader impact of their messages on society. Advertisements should not encourage harmful behaviors, exploit vulnerabilities, or promote products that are detrimental to individuals or the environment. By embracing social responsibility, advertisers contribute positively to the well-being of communities and advocate for sustainable practices.

Balancing Creativity and Truthfulness

Ethical advertising strikes a delicate balance between creativity and truthfulness. While advertisements aim to capture attention and engage audiences, they should never sacrifice accuracy or misrepresent information. Advertisers can employ innovative and imaginative approaches while ensuring that the core message remains honest and authentic.

The Role of Regulatory Bodies

Regulatory bodies play a crucial role in upholding ethical standards in advertising. They establish guidelines and regulations that advertisers must adhere to, ensuring fairness, honesty, and transparency. These bodies monitor and investigate complaints, enforce penalties for violations, and protect consumers from misleading or deceptive advertising practices.

The Impact of Unethical Advertising

Unethical advertising can have far-reaching consequences. It erodes consumer trust, damages brand reputation, and undermines the integrity of the entire advertising industry. Moreover, misleading or manipulative advertisements can harm individuals by promoting unrealistic expectations, fostering insecurities, or exploiting vulnerabilities. Society as a whole suffers when unethical advertising practices prevail.

Case Studies: Ethical Advertising Campaigns

Numerous examples showcase the power of ethical advertising campaigns. The Dove “Real Beauty” campaign challenged traditional beauty standards, promoting self-acceptance and diversity. Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign encouraged conscious consumption by urging consumers to consider the environmental impact of their purchases. These campaigns not only achieved commercial success but also made a positive impact on societal perceptions and behaviors.

Ethical Advertising: Challenges and Opportunities

Ethical advertising faces various challenges in today’s complex landscape. Advertisers must navigate the digital realm, where issues like ad fraud, data privacy, and invasive targeting pose ethical dilemmas. Additionally, the pressure to maximize profits and compete for consumers’ attention can tempt advertisers to employ questionable tactics. However, these challenges also present opportunities for advertisers to differentiate themselves by prioritizing ethics and establishing meaningful connections with their audience.

Educating Consumers about Ethical Advertising

Educating consumers about ethical advertising is vital for fostering a more discerning and informed audience. By increasing awareness about deceptive practices, promoting media literacy, and encouraging critical thinking, consumers can make more conscious choices and hold advertisers accountable for their ethical conduct. Collaboration between industry stakeholders, educational institutions, and advocacy groups can help empower consumers with the knowledge they need.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Ethical Advertising

Measuring the effectiveness of ethical advertising involves assessing its impact on consumer behavior, brand perception, and social attitudes. Metrics such as consumer trust, brand loyalty, purchase intent, and societal response can provide insights into the success of ethical advertising campaigns. By analyzing data and feedback, advertisers can refine their strategies and demonstrate the tangible benefits of ethical practices.

Ethical Advertising in the Digital Age

The digital age has revolutionized advertising, presenting both opportunities and challenges for ethical practices. Advertisers must navigate issues such as ad transparency, data privacy, and algorithmic bias. It is crucial to embrace responsible data collection, provide meaningful user experiences, and ensure that algorithms are unbiased and transparent. Adapting ethical principles to the digital landscape is essential for maintaining trust and relevance in the evolving advertising ecosystem.

In conclusion, ethics in advertising play a vital role in shaping the advertising landscape and maintaining a healthy relationship between advertisers and consumers. By adhering to ethical principles, advertisers can build trust, promote transparency, and foster positive societal values. The importance of honesty, transparency, respect, and social responsibility cannot be overstated in the world of advertising.

Ethical advertising not only benefits consumers by providing them with accurate information and empowering them to make informed decisions, but it also benefits advertisers themselves. Advertisers who prioritize ethics can establish a positive brand image, gain customer loyalty, and contribute to the overall reputation of their industry.

However, ethical advertising does face challenges in the digital age, such as data privacy concerns, algorithmic bias, and the need to adapt to evolving technologies. Advertisers must stay vigilant, embrace responsible practices, and adapt ethical principles to the digital landscape.

Educating consumers about ethical advertising is equally important. By raising awareness and promoting media literacy, consumers can become more discerning and make choices aligned with their values. Collaboration between industry stakeholders, educational institutions, and advocacy groups is key to empowering consumers with the knowledge they need.

Measuring the effectiveness of ethical advertising is crucial to demonstrate its impact and refine strategies. Metrics such as consumer trust, brand loyalty, and societal response provide valuable insights into the success of ethical advertising campaigns.

Ultimately, ethics in advertising contribute to a healthier and more sustainable advertising industry. By striking the right balance between persuasion and responsibility, advertisers can build lasting relationships, foster positive change, and create a trustworthy advertising environment.

FAQs Related to Ethics in Advertising

1. can ethics in advertising really make a difference.

Absolutely. Ethics in advertising have the power to shape consumer perceptions, build trust, and foster positive societal change. By adhering to ethical principles, advertisers can create meaningful connections with their audience and contribute to a healthier advertising industry.

2. How can consumers support ethical advertising?

Consumers can support ethical advertising by being aware of deceptive practices, promoting media literacy, and making conscious choices. By supporting brands that prioritize ethical advertising, consumers can influence the industry and encourage responsible practices.

3. What are the consequences of unethical advertising?

Unethical advertising can erode consumer trust, damage brand reputation, and harm individuals by promoting unrealistic expectations or exploiting vulnerabilities. It also undermines the integrity of the advertising industry as a whole.

4. How can regulatory bodies contribute to ethical advertising?

Regulatory bodies play a crucial role in upholding ethical standards in advertising. They establish guidelines, investigate complaints, and enforce penalties for violations, ensuring fairness, honesty, and transparency in advertising practices.

5. What role does social responsibility play in ethical advertising?

Social responsibility is a key aspect of ethical advertising. Advertisers should consider the broader impact of their messages on society, avoid promoting harmful behaviors, and advocate for sustainability and positive social values.

6. How important is ethics in advertising?

Ethics in advertising play a crucial role as they ensure transparency, trust, and credibility in the industry. Adhering to ethical principles helps build positive brand image, fosters long-term customer relationships, and avoids potential legal issues. Ultimately, ethics in advertising are vital for sustaining a reputable and responsible business.

7. What is the ethical side of advertising?

The ethical side of advertising involves promoting products or services while adhering to moral standards and societal norms. It emphasizes honesty, fairness, and respect for consumers’ rights. Ethical advertising avoids deceptive tactics, respects privacy, and provides accurate information, giving consumers the freedom to make informed choices.

8. What is an example of ethics in advertising?

An example of ethics in advertising is ensuring truthfulness in claims. When an advertisement accurately represents a product or service, it maintains ethical standards. For instance, a cosmetics company promoting the anti-aging effects of its product must provide reliable scientific evidence to support their claims. By doing so, they uphold ethical practices and avoid misleading consumers.

9. How do I know if an advertisement is ethical?

To determine if an advertisement is ethical, consider a few factors. First, check for transparency and honesty in the claims made. Look for evidence supporting the advertised benefits or features. Additionally, assess whether the advertisement respects consumers’ privacy and doesn’t engage in intrusive or manipulative tactics. Pay attention to any potential conflicts of interest, such as undisclosed sponsorships. By evaluating these aspects, you can gauge the ethical integrity of an advertisement.

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One reply to “ethics in advertising – it’s importance and effectiveness”.

Refreshing read! It’s inspiring to see the center of attention on moral marketing practices. Integrity in reality units manufacturers aside in the modern-day market.

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Exploring Perceptions of Advertising Ethics: An Informant-Derived Approach

• Original Paper
• Open access
• Published: 23 January 2018
• Volume 159 , pages 727–744, ( 2019 )

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• Haseeb Ahmed Shabbir 1 ,
• Hala Maalouf 2 ,
• Michele Griessmair 3 ,
• Nazan Colmekcioglu 4 &
• Pervaiz Akhtar 1  

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Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research.

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Introduction

Although a unified understanding of what ethics in advertising should denote remains complicated by the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ethics (Drumwright 2008 ), there has been growing scholarly interest in “ad ethics”. The consensus appears to be that advertising is the most ethically charged aspect of marketing (Shabbir and Thwaites 2007 ; Richards 2008 ). Critics of advertising have raised concerns over its perpetuation of stereotypes and unbridled materialism or to its manipulative and persuasive nature (Pollay 1986 , 1987 ; Calfee 1997 ; Smith and Quelch 1993 ; Hyman et al. 1994 ), leading Beltramini ( 2003 ) to describe ad ethics as the “ultimate oxymoron”. However and despite the centrality of consumers in this discussion, we suggest that their views do not surface sufficiently in the derivation of what constitutes “ad ethics”, and yet as Ringold ( 1998 , p. 335) noted “individual consumers (not advertisers, not those who create and disseminate advertising, not the government) should be the final arbiters of what constitutes acceptable advertising practice”. Indeed, the most established view is that the viewing public should determine the (un)ethicality of ads (Laczniak 1998 ; Skipper and Hyman 1993 ). As Cook ( 2008 , p. 1) argues, ultimately “the soul of all meaningful advertisements lies in the respect shown to the person for whom that advertisement is designed” and yet a purely viewer- or informant-derived assessment of the underlying structure of ad ethics remains lacking. Although numerous studies have investigated consumer responses towards specific contexts in ad ethics and various public polls of attitudes towards advertising consistently find advertisers as one of the least ethical professions (Richards 2008 ), we know of no study, which derives the general perceptions of consumers towards ad ethics.

Without developing an understanding of consumer concerns towards advertising, it is difficult for an ad sector to anticipate the unintended consequences of unethical ads (Bush and Bush 1994 ; Treise et al. 1994 ; Polonsky and Hyman 2007 ). As Treise et al. ( 1994 , p. 68) elaborate, “Consumer opinion that a specific advertising practice is unethical or immoral can lead to a number of unwanted outcomes, ranging from consumer indifference toward the advertised product to more serious actions such as boycotts or demands for government regulation”. Therefore, determining consumer perceived ad ethics may shed important insights to guide ad agencies to act in ways commensurate with what consumers perceive as violations of ethical norms. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to address this deficiency by determining the general perceptions of ad ethics that the target audience holds. We do this by developing an inductively derived structure of ad ethics.

A Lebanese public perspective is used as an illustrative context for our study, thus addressing a second related gap, or the lack of understanding of ad ethics from different cultural perspectives. As Drumwright and Kamal ( 2016 , p. 173) argue this gap in our knowledge “has not received attention commiserate with its importance”. The notion that ethics vary across cultures has a rich and established tradition (Casmir 2013 ). Consumer perceived ethics are also dependent on cultural variations (Swaidan 2012 ) and by default, perceived ad ethics is also bound by a cultural dilemma since the target audience’s “culture filters our perceptions of what constitutes good or responsible consumption” (Belk et al. 2005 , p. 7). An audience-based derivation of ad ethics from the target cultural perspective could therefore reveal the unique combination of ethical characteristics associated with ads, effectively giving rise to a culture’s “fingerprint” of perceived ad ethics.

It is important to note from the onset that whilst previous studies have used the controversial nature of ads as a proxy for their unethical content (e.g. Treise et al. 1994 ), we avoid this assumption. Not all controversial ads are unethical, and vice versa. Controversial ads can also generate positive effects such as in social marketing awareness campaigns (Fam et al. 2009 ). Moreover, since ethics is based on moral philosophies which fluctuate with individual judgement, “there is no such thing as a right/wrong or ethical/unethical ad, there are only latitudes [or boundaries] of ethicality” (Bush and Bush 1994 , p. 33). The purpose of this article therefore is not to explore the philosophical discussions surrounding the rightness or wrongness of perceptions towards ads, but instead to determine the pattern of consumer thoughts in relation to ad ethics. As such, we provide advertisers with a means to determine the “boundaries or latitudes of ethicality” (Bush and Bush 1994 ) so that advertisers can become more aware of the parameters used by their target audiences to evaluate the (un) ethical content of their ads. In doing so, we demonstrate an approach, which enables locally or emic-based derived associations of ad ethics, which advertisers can subsequently assess to manage their own creative process in relation to aligning their content with consumer judgements of ad ethicality.

Two research questions form the basis of this study. First, what can a locally derived, or an emic-based approach uncover in relation to what constitutes perceived ad ethics? Second, how can this informant-based derivation of ad ethics inform our understanding of the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics? The remainder of this study is structured as follows. First, the lack of a general ad ethics perspective is derived from an overview of the extant literature. Second, a rationale is developed for an informant and emic-based approach. Next, we discuss the methodological approach selected, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) as enabling unprompted or free elicitation of word associations linked to ad ethics, and therefore consistent with an informant and emic-based perspective. The case for using Lebanon as an illustrative context is elaborated. Thereafter, the findings of the MDS application to a sample of the Lebanese public are presented alongside a discussion of implications for theory development and elaboration. Finally, managerial implications, avenues for future research and limitations of the study are reviewed.

Literature Review

At its most fundamental level, ethics is often understood as a reference to “just or ‘right’ standards of behaviour between parties in a situation, based on individual moral philosophies” (Bush and Bush 1994 , p. 32). By extension, advertising ethics tends to focus on “what is right or wrong in the conduct of the advertising function, and concerns questions of what ought to be done, not just what legally must be done” (Cunningham 1999 , p. 500). Classifications of ad ethics differentiate between message (or content) and business ethics (Drumwright and Murphy 2009 ; Drumwright 2012 ). Message ethics relate to the ethical parameters surrounding the creation, dissemination and processing of ad messages or the “micro” perspective (Drumwright 2012 ) of ad ethics. Within this stream, important insights have emerged on specific advertising contexts. These range from gender stereotyping in ads (e.g. Boddewyn 1991 ; Gould 1994 ; Kilbourne 1999 ) and the vulnerability of children to advertising (e.g. Moore 2004 ; Preston 2004 ; Treise et al. 1994 ) to racial content in ads (e.g. Shabbir et al. 2014 ; Bristor et al. 1995 ) and the use of fear as an ad appeal (e.g. Hastings et al. 2004 ; Hyman and Tansey 1990 ; LaTour and Zahra 1989 ). In contrast, a business ethics approach adopts an organisational or “meso” perspective (Drumwright 2012 ) and deals with the ethics of the ad industry. The focus within this stream has been on uncovering practitioner attitudes towards ad ethics (Drumwright and Murphy 2004 ; Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ) or on how ad agencies should manage ethics (e.g. Hyman et al. 1990 ; Drumwright and Murphy 2009 ; Hyman 2009 ). Linking both these streams is yet a third more earlier perspective based on a largely philosophical or “macro” approach (Drumwright 2012 ) focusing on the aggregate effects of advertising. Here, the debate revolves around whether advertising serves as a “mirror”, merely reflecting the values of its target audiences (Holbrook 1987 ) or instead as a “distorted mirror”, and therefore as a manipulator of audience values (Pollay 1986 , 1987 ). Reviewing this debate, Alexander et al. ( 2011 ) conclude the evidence points to advertising as a “moulder” of its target audience’s values, both through its persuasive content (McCracken 1986 ; Sun 2015 ; Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ) and through its role as cultural intermediary (Cronin 2004 ; Cayla and Eckhardt 2008 ; Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ).

In what remains the only study to date to propose a multi-faceted typology on what constitutes ad ethics, Hyman et al. ( 1994 ) summarised, using extant literature at the time and interviews with advertising academics, the “primary topics” of consumer-based ad ethics inquiry. These primary topics were classified as (1) deception in ads, (2) advertising to children, (3), tobacco advertising, (4) alcohol ads, (5), negative political ads, (6) racial and (7) sexual stereotyping. The versatility of this typology is reflected in the fact that it “still provides researchers with the most rigorous and pragmatic agenda for exploring ethics in advertising” (Shabbir and Thwaites 2007 , p. 75). Despite the rich stream of studies exploring specific domains of consumer ad ethics, largely rooted in one of Hyman et al’s ( 1994 ) primary topic areas, our knowledge of what constitutes ad ethics purely from a consumer’s perspective remains much more limited. As a result, our understanding of the relationship between different audience derived ethical domains is also lacking.

Compounding the aforementioned gap in knowledge is the notable absence of exploring ad ethics from different cultural perspectives beyond Western markets (Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ; Moon and Franke 2000 ). Rising concerns of ad ethics in the popular and trade press of other global marketing contexts warrants extending the contextual domain of ad ethics (Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ). As LaFerle ( 2015 , p. 163) notes, if ad agencies are to succeed in an increasingly diverse marketplace, then “ethical behaviour and cultural knowledge are key”. One approach to investigating the ethics-culture nexus is the emic-etic dilemma. At its most basic level, this debate asks whether behaviour can be understood in terms of the culture in which it is derived from (emic) or whether cultural differences can be understood as variations of underlying common themes (etic) (Berry 1990 ; Casmir 2013 ).

When ad ethics have been explored in non-Western contexts, a cross-cultural lens has been adopted and therefore an etic, or “outside view” (Taylor et al. 1996 ) approach favoured, or where the assumption is that “Behavior [can be] described from a vantage external to the culture, in constructs that apply equally well to other cultures” (Morris et al. 1999 , p. 783). In contrast, emic or “inside” approaches to investigating cultural phenomenon rest on assuming that, “Behavior [can be] described as seen from the perspective of cultural insiders, in constructs drawn from their self-understandings” (ibid, p. 783). An emic-based conceptualisation of ethics is often derived through words or descriptors used by informants representing the local target audience (Taylor et al. 1996 ). As Reinecke et al. ( 2016 , p. 14) elaborate, it enables researchers to “experience-near understanding, that is, situated knowledge…of how individuals negotiate what is ethical or not in the social situation under study”.

In relation to ethics and culture, the universalist position reflects an etic approach in that it assumes that ethics supersede cultural limitations of any cultural system, does not necessarily equate or imply culture and instead a single set of values are applicable to all cultures (Hall 2013 ). In contrast, the relativist position argues for an emic perspective and suggests that “culture as a sense making system necessarily implies ethics” (ibid, p. 21). Relativists therefore advocate a more complex nexus between ethics and culture since ethics is assumed as intrinsic to cultural values and norms. Moreover, the relativist position suggests that since value systems are unique to each culture, its “insiders” can only judge ethics. Since morality is also culture bound, the plurality of ethics can be explained by the defining norms of the societal context in which it is being explored (Haidt and Joseph 2004 ). This position, therefore, accounts for the plurality of ethics as emerging from the relativism of underlying moral philosophies (Bush and Bush 1994 ; Crane and Matten 2004 ). A third position on the etic-emic dilemma argues for a dual role of universalism and relativism such that both are no longer considered as dichotomous perspectives (Hall 2013 ). This position assumes that underlying moral values, which underpin ethics, converge across cultures but the ethical evaluations of moral issues become refined by specific cultural norms and values (Morris et al. 1999 ).

Whilst several etic-based studies exist which examine ad ethics across cultures, no previous study has sought to derive general perceptions of ad ethics derived solely from the cultural audience under investigation. Moreover, those studies which have adopted an etic cross-cultural perspective have investigated particular domains of ad ethics such as attitudes towards sexual appeals (Garcia and Yang 2006 ; Sawang 2010 ), direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising (Reast et al. 2008 ) or violent images (Waller et al. 2013 ). Similarly, where the focus has been on uncovering one particular culture’s attitude, the focus has again been on pre-selected ethical domains such as the ethics of food advertising in India (Soni and Singh 2012 ) or offensive advertising in Singapore (Phau and Prendergast 2001 ). Even when a more general approach has been adopted, combinations of pre-selected categories have remained the foci. Treise et al. ( 1994 ) and Mostafa ( 2011 ) for instance explore attitudes towards children, minority groups, sexual and fear appeals as correlates of advertising ethics. Emic-based derivations of consumer ad ethic contexts are fewer still but again specific domains have been the foci of the investigations such as Waller and Lanasier’s ( 2015 ) study on the attitude of Indonesian mothers towards the pervasiveness of children’s advertising.

Against this backdrop, we propose that an emic-based derivation of general ad ethics could contribute to our understanding of the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics. This approach is consistent with calls to conceptualise ad ethics in “a manner that satisfies the cultural expectations of consumers” (Rawwas 2001 , p. 203). Given the inductive nature of the emic-based logic, a priori assumptions of what constitutes ad ethics do not govern the structure of any emergent structure of perceived ad ethics. Instead, any theory development or elaboration on the nature of general perceptions towards ad ethics rests solely on emergent or inductively derived outcomes. Prioritising this informant-based logic is elaborated further.

Stakeholder Theory

Complementing an emic-based approach to investigating consumer perceived ad ethics further is stakeholder theory (Freeman 1984 ) or the view that managerial decision-making should “take account the interests of all stakeholders” (Jensen 2002 , p. 236). Among the myriad of potential stakeholders, consumers hold a particularly important position in advertising. O’Barr ( 1994 , p. 8) for instance contends, “the consumer is [the] ultimate author of the meaning of an ad, the intention of the [ad] makers becomes of secondary importance”, thus reiterating the overriding role of the consumer as “final arbiters” (Ringold 1998 ) or primary stakeholder in the consumption of advertising (Ringold 1998 ; Skipper and Hyman 1993 ; Alexander et al. 2011 ). However, and although the need to measure public attitudes towards ad ethicality is an established one (Hyman et al. 1994 ), “there are no currently recognised mechanisms for evaluating” (Polonsky and Hyman 2007 , p. 5) the unintended consequences of advertising on its primary stakeholders. Existing approaches to determining consumer derivations of ad ethics remain limited.

For instance, survey based approaches to measuring ad ethics have traditionally been problematic (Drumwright 2008 ; Skipper and Hyman 1993 ). Given the pluralistic nature of moral philosophies, “there appears to be no single standard of evaluation” for perceived ethics (Reidenbach and Robin 1988 , p. 879), an issue compounded within the “advertising community where messages are targeted to a mass audience” (Bush and Bush 1994 , p. 33). As a result, both single and multi-item scales for capturing ethical evaluations of adverts are open to misspecification and misinterpretation, and have been deemed “missing”, “vague” and “ambiguous” (Bush and Bush 1994 ; Skipper and Hyman 1993 ). Existing qualitative applications to uncover ad ethics also pose problems. A common practice for instance among ad agencies is to ask respondents for verbal self-reports to a pre-specified ad (Hyman and Tansey 1990 ). Whilst this constitutes a viable technique to gain direct insights from consumers, this approach still limits the array of potential associations due to the nature of the pre-coder specified stimuli. Despite its shortcomings, this method is widespread. A report by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority), Public perceptions of offence and harm in UK advertising (ASA 2012 ), is largely based on consumer responses to a pre-selected number of ads to guide focus group discussions. The deciphering of meaning behind the symbology or story within the corpus of the ad, i.e. semiotic or narrative-based evaluations, has also been popular among ad agencies. However, these too are prone to coder subjectivity and influenced by coder socio-cultural norms, values and experiences (Coulter et al. 2001 ), and as a result would not be feasible if applied across an entire ad sector’s ethical positioning. We therefore propose an informant-based logic to overcome some of the aforementioned problems in ascertaining consumer perceived ad ethics.

Towards an Informant-Based MDS Approach

Informant-based research in advertising has evolved to assure that the informant, rather than the coder, should select the stimuli for research (Zaltman 1997 ) such that by “controlling the stimuli, informants are better able to represent their thoughts and feelings and identify issues that are both important to them and potentially unknown to the researcher” (Coulter et al. 2001 , p. 4). Given that individuals “may differ in the advertising activities they find (un)acceptable/(ir)responsible” (Polonsky and Hyman 2007 , p. 5), asking respondents to tap into their own associations with advertising ethics permits that individuals’ unique beliefs, values and experiences to form the basis of their personal judgments. We contend that an investigation of ad ethics based on pre-selected stimuli forces consumers to respond to a pre-determined list of attributes rather than allowing them to “describe the target stimulus in terms that are salient to [them]” (Reilly 1990 , p. 22). The free elicitation of associations from the target audience through an informative based approach therefore minimizes the “danger of forcing respondents to react to a standardised framework that may not be an accurate representation of their image” (Jenkins 1999 , p. 7). An informant-based approach to determine ad ethics is therefore also more consistent with an emic or “insider approach”, thus enabling a greater reflexive focus on “the unanticipated and unexpected—things that puzzle the researcher” (Alvesson and Kärreman 2007 , p. 1266). As Reinecke et al. ( 2016 , p. 14) argue such an approach ensures any theory development or elaboration is “…through the lens of the participant’s perceptions of his or her experiences rather than through the lens of abstract categories and concepts imposed by the researchers, including the normative assumptions that are always already inscribed into them”.

Given the methodological need to uncover audience perceptions without imposing pre-specified criteria to shape their judgements, we propose multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) as a viable technique to attain an informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. MDS comprises a number of procedures for analysing proximity data to identify “the underlying structure of complex psychological phenomena” (Pinkley et al. 2005 , p. 239) but critically does not require researchers to define categories for evaluation a priori. Instead, MDS allows dimensions to emerge solely on the basis of (dis)similarity ratings made by respondents. Within the context of this research, it means that we do not pre-specify the characteristics of ad ethics, but instead inductively derive the meaning of ad ethics through unprompted solicitation. This open, data-driven approach is in line with the notions of grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1997 ) and therefore ensures that the derived solution is truly informant-based and discovery-orientated in nature (Griessmair et al. 2011 ). Furthermore, this approach also ensures an emic-based derivation since the generation of the initial input and condensation to dimensions are performed by the target group, and thus the target group’s mental schemata is the underlying deriver of outputs. The latter point is especially important as people do not necessarily react to an “objective reality”, as interpreted by researchers and coders, but instead to their uniquely and individually experienced environment (cf. Ellis 1962 ; Lazarus 1989 ; Mahoney 1974 ). Finally, the rating procedure does not require respondents to directly provide ethical categories that underlie their judgments and perceptions—which might prove difficult considering the complexity of the phenomenon—but only to compare the stimuli and eventually provide descriptions. Thus, MDS enables the identification, categorisation, and labelling of perceptions even when the criteria used for the respective judgments are not fully explicit or not readily available in consumers’ minds (Pinkley 1990 ; Pinkley et al. 2005 ). Since raters are not “cognizant of existing theory and [therefore] blind to the purpose of the study” (Griessmair et al. 2011 , p. 1066), the findings are “less likely to be contaminated by the preconceptions or hypotheses of the researcher” (Pinkley et al. 2005 , p. 341). Systematic bias therefore is not eliminated by MDS but instead is minimised relative to alternative coding qualitative procedures (Griessmair et al. 2011 ). MDS also allows for calculating the goodness of fit of the identified dimensional solution (Borg and Groenen 2005 ; Hair et al. 2010 ). As such, it provides for additional reliability, relative to content analytical techniques for instance (Griessmair et al. 2011 ), Finally, since the aim of our study is in establishing boundaries or latitudes of ethicality from an informant perspective, MDS is particularly suitable as it encapsulates the relativity of informant-elicited responses (Griessmair et al. 2011 ). A general sample from the Lebanese public provides an appropriate context for our study for several reasons.

The Lebanese Context

First, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been “historically ignored in advertising research” (Kalliny et al. 2009 , p. 92) and indeed in the wider domain of international marketing research (Lages et al. 2015 ). Despite being “portrayed by the sensationalistic media as politically unstable and potentially violent” (ibid, p. 5), the MENA region is characterised by rising levels of young consumers (Pew Research 2011 ), exponential growth in media proliferation (Dubai Press Club 2012 ) and therefore increasingly attractive for business opportunities (Lages et al. 2015 ; Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ). Second, and not unlike other emerging economies, MENA contexts have the potential to challenge conventional marketing thinking (Burgess and Steenkamp 2006 ) and facilitate the re-assessment of existing conceptualisations of marketing theory (Akbar and Samii 2005 ). In an era of globalisation, where “MENA [remains] largely ignored as academics focus on the evolving advertising industry in the West” (Smith, 2016 , p. 3), MENA contexts, therefore, provide fertile examples to extend research in ad ethics beyond Western markets (Drumwright and Kamal 2016 ; Moon and Franke 2000 ; Smith 2016 ). However, as Smith ( 2016 , p. 3) elaborates, given their “…lack of regulation, exponential economic growth, media revolutions and rapid move towards consumer-oriented thinking”, MENA contexts are particularly vulnerable to unethical marketing. Drumwright ( 2016 , p. 1) also argued that a particular problem in the MENA region is the notable lack of “…laws that prevent people from doing misleading advertising or if there are laws they aren’t enforced or are so specific that they don’t really deal with the important issues”. Consequently, the MENA ad landscape is particularly “…ripe for ethical infractions” (Drumwright and Kamal 2016 , p. 173) and therefore warrants attention.

Third, and specifically in relation to Lebanon, the Lebanese ad sector is considered to be the most controversial in the MENA region (Kraidy 2007 ; 2010 ; Farah and El Samad 2015a ). Whilst we recognise that not all ad controversies are necessarily unethical, nor all unethical content deemed controversial, public concerns and criticisms of Lebanon’s ad landscape are rooted in established ethical infractions. These concerns for instance range over its widespread advertising of guns and armaments (Farah and El Samad 2014 ), political and sectarian messages (Dakroub 2008 )—often in conjunction with racial innuendoes (Farah and El Samad 2014 )—and its overt sexualisation of women (Anderson 2013 ). Although sexism in advertising is a worldwide phenomenon, it has been described as salient issue in Lebanon (Anderson 2013 ; Farah and El Samad 2015b ). Until recently Lebanon also had no restrictions on tobacco advertising (Farah and Samad 2015a ).

Fourth, as a “betwixt and between nation, [or] a hybrid culture” (Kamalipour and Rampal 2001 , p. 329), Lebanon, is “possibly one of the most complex in the region in terms of culture and society” (Farah and El Samad 2014 , p. 345). Its relative non-compliance with the values governing other MENA ad sectors characterised by more traditional Arab cultural and ethical norms (Kalliny et al. 2009 ; Farah and El Samad 2015a ), is reflected in its own ad sector. According to Nasr ( 2010 ), Lebanon is unique in the MENA region given its post-conflict struggle in defining a unified self-identity (Nasr 2010 ; Farah and Newman 2010 ) or in what has become a “nation-state with no sense of nationality to unite its people” (Nasr 2010 , p. 1). Traditionally caught between two poles, a pre-colonial pan-Arab or a post-colonial Francophone identity, the national agenda in Lebanon has been on reconstructing a new unified “Lebanese identity” (Nasr 2010 ). Recently, Lebanese advertisers have been at the forefront of this national agenda to mould a “new” post-modernist cosmopolitan identity, which “transcends ideological and religious differences” (ibid, p. 1). Common to cosmopolitan identity construction, the identities shown in Lebanese ads increasingly want to express a “space where cultures mirror one another” (Hannerz 1996 , p. 104) and therefore reinforce a fusion of multiple local and, simultaneously, global identity ideals. Lebanon therefore serves as an ideal illustrative context to demonstrate whether perceived ad ethics reflects underlying social and cultural ideals and as result, therefore also demands for a non-invasive approach. It is for this reason we focus on a general sample of the Lebanese public.

Generating Input for MDS

The initial phase of MDS focuses on the free elicitation of mental stimuli to generate the initial input data (Mitchell and Olson 1981 ; Olson and Muderrisoglu 1979 ). This process requires respondents to verbalise anything that “first comes to their mind” in relation to the subject, and thereby ensures that a variety of associations in relation to the phenomenon are generated (Steenkamp and Van Trijp 1997 ). An online link was posted (containing the open question “ What words or phrases first come to your mind when you think of ‘Ethics in Advertising’”?) on various English-based Lebanese social media sites. Pre-screening questions ensured all respondents were citizens of Lebanon and had current residency in Lebanon. Associations were collected from a sample of 131 Lebanese consumers and were balanced according to gender (46.5% of the sample are males, 53.5% females) and age (average age of 30.4 years), thus reflecting the age and gender profile of the Lebanese public (CIA 2016 ). Respondents generated on average four associations, resulting in a total of 524 associations. The next phase of MDS focuses on the (dis)similarity between these elicited aspects. As the distance-matrix is generated using similarity ratings, it is sufficient that identical or very similar associations are considered only once in the rating procedure. Thus, and consistent with other MDS studies within advertising contexts (e.g. Griessmair et al. 2011 ) the original set was condensed by removing duplicate responses, synonyms as well as words that are content-wise similar. Only six associations were removed for content-wise similarity but numerous synonyms and duplicate words were removed. The remaining 386 associations served as input for the MDS procedure.

Although a number of methods are available to create distance matrices (Borg and Groenen 2005 ; Young and Hamer 1987 ), the subjective clustering method is the only one capable of handling the large amount of input statements involved in the present study (Griessmair et al. 2011 ) and is subsequently described. A convenience sample of Lebanese raters, recruited through snowballing, and representing the gender, age and residency profile of the original sample were used to sort the 386 associations into decks based on the perceived similarity of the associations. Associations within a deck are maximally similar to each other and maximally dissimilar to the other decks, thus fulfilling the conditions of a subjective clustering approach. Raters were advised to sort the associations one-by-one and regularly check the decks for consistency and re-sort the cards if necessary. In a final step, the raters had to name each deck and shortly describe why they considered the associations in the pack to be similar to each other and dissimilar from those sorted into the other packs. This assessment provides valuable information for the eventual interpretation and classification of the dimensions. The sorting procedure took on average 80 mins and was assisted by a moderator (i.e. one of the authors) to ensure that instructions were read, understood, and fully implemented throughout the session. Even though Dong ( 1983 ) showed that raters’ boredom and fatigue do not significantly influence MDS solutions, we included options for several breaks to avoid rater depletion, although no rater opted to take one, thus confirming Dong’s ( 1983 ) insight. A constant comparison technique was employed in reaching a theoretical sample size of 15 raters, with consistency checks made concurrently based on dimensional outputs, stress levels and goodness of fit indices.

Data Analysis

The frequency with which the associations have been sorted into the same deck by the different raters represents the degree of similarity of associations. The resulting proximity data were subsequently analysed using Proxscal (Borg and Groenen 2005 ). Before initiating interpretation, the different dimensional solutions were rotated (Varimax) and normalised. The overall goal of the analysis is to identify the solution with the fewest dimensions and the richest interpretation (Borg and Groenen 2005 ; Young and Hamer 1987 ). In contrast to other exploratory methods, MDS does not provide a final criterion for determining the “right” number of dimensions and their interpretation (Hair et al. 2010 ). For the present study, and consistent with MDS consistency checks (Borg and Groenen 2005 ; Kruskal and Wish 1977 ; Spence and Graef 1974 ; Young and Hamer 1987 ), we employ criteria based on goodness of fit. Table  1 shows the values indicating goodness of fit for the one- to five-dimensional solutions. Following the elbow-criterion (Kruskal and Wish 1977 ), the five-dimensional is deemed most optimal for this study. Moreover, the reported stress values indicate statistical support of the derived solution based on the sample of raters (see Table  1 ).

It has to be noted that stress values increase with the number of word associations (MacCallum and Cornelius 1977 ). Thus, for the present study with 386 word associations, we expect higher stress values than in classical marketing applications usually involving only about 7–18 stimuli (Bijmolt and Wedel 1999 ; Henry and Stumpf 1975 ). Although the goodness of fit provides important information about the quality of the chosen solution, several scholars advise against using it as primary criterion (Jaworska and Chupetlovska-Anastasova 2009 ; Steyvers 2002 ). As pointed out by Chen ( 2003 , p. 79), “the goal of MDS mapping is not merely to minimize the stress value; rather, we want to produce a meaningful and informative map that can reveal hidden structures in the original data”. Thus, the goodness-of-fit measures were considered as preliminary criteria and the main focus was placed on deriving meaning behind the emergent dimensions.

For this level of interpretation, we applied a purely inductive approach in line with basic principles of Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967 ). The interpretation process starts with contrasting the extreme values of each dimension. Associations exhibiting high loadings on a particular dimension and low loadings on the other dimensions are especially indicative for the respective dimension (Pinkley et al. 2005 ). By contrasting the endpoints, the preliminary meaning of the dimensions are established.

Consistency Check

In a next step, a multi-dimensional perspective is taken and additional consistency checks of associations located between the poles of dimensions are performed. These associations should “represent a blending of the identified dimensions and ideally form clusters” (Griessmair et al. 2011 , p. 1072). The facets should meaningfully reflect a blend of two or more dimensions, depending on the dimension they relate to more strongly. In order to facilitate understanding, we visualise the dimensionalisation via two-dimensional perceptual maps. These maps present each association or facet as having two coordinates in a two-dimensional space, and visually portray the extent to which these facets load on the relative dimensions (Griessmair et al. 2011 ). The map plots each association, whereas the proximity of two associations with each other indicates how similar they are perceived to be. The items should ideally form clusters located between the axes. The clusters are made of items that are very close in space, thus perceived similar by the various coders. Extreme associations and clusters between the axes of two dimensions should simultaneously define both dimensions. It is important to note, however, that this interpretation is two dimensional and some associations may load high on other dimensions as well. Therefore, consistency checks are made for all dimensional outputs. Consistency checks resulted in a set of dimensions with stable meanings along their respective endpoints. In order to facilitate methodological understanding, we exemplify consistency checks for two of our dimensions (namely dimensions 3, which has subsequently been denoted Moral myopia–Sexuality) and 4 (subsequently conceptualised as Politics-CSR) in “ Appendix ”.

In this iterative process of contrasting extreme values, performing consistency checks, and recurrently integrating the raters’ characterisation, the meaning of the dimensions is revised and altered until a consistent interpretation emerges. This classification of the dimensions was conducted by three independent judges and aided by the characterisations that the raters had earlier provided. Using Perreault and Leigh’s ( 1989 ) inter-coder reliability measure, reliabilities exceeded the critical cut-off value of 0.80. The interpretation process detailed above was conducted for all dimensional solutions that met the goodness-of-fit criteria. The five-dimensional solution deemed most appropriate is shown in Table  2 .

In the subsequent section, we summarise the main inductively derived bipolar themes within each dimension. Subsequently, and to demonstrate the theoretical contribution of the findings, we discuss the results in light of existing theory.

Dimension 1 (“True Functions of Advertising—Lack of Concern for Advertising Standards”) describes ideal functions of advertising on the one end, and the concern of a lack of regulation for advertising on the other end. Free word associations from respondents representing this dimension range on the one end (for “True Functions of Advertising”) from “ Know your product, love your product ” (0.9616), “ Good offers and prices ” (0.9450) to “ Respect for competitive products ” (0.8923); and on the other end (for “Lack of Concern for Advertising Standards”) from “ No regulations ” (− 0.9918) to “ No control in advertising ” (− 0.9416) and “ No limits ” (− 0.9063).

Dimension 2 (“Deception and Manipulation—Diversity”) describes at the end of one pole the salient features of the diverse Lebanese culture, such as “ No racial discrimination in Lebanon ” (− 0.8995), “ Respect everyone’s point of view ” (− 0.8906) and “ Reflects the society we’re living in ” (− 0.8211). At the other end, we find associations reflecting deception and manipulation such as “ Fake facts in ad messages ” (0.9291) and “ We trick the customer into believing that by owning this product, he’ll be making the deal of his life ” (1.00).

Dimension 3 (“Moral myopia–Sexuality”) suggests that sexuality strongly relates to ethics in ads on the one hand (for example “ Sexual connotations ” (− 0.9642), “Women’s sexuality to advertise unrelated products/services” (− 0.9501) and “ Sex appeal is being used as the easiest approach to people’s desires ” (− 0.9464). On the other hand, several associations relate to the justification of advertisers’ behaviours such as “ Advertising is only a tool ” (0.735), “ Advertising messages are most of the time honest ” (0.7220), “ There’s room to be more courageous ” (0.7571) and “ Ethics are governed by savvy consumers ” (0.6904). Drumright and Murphy ( 2004 , p. 11) in an investigation of advertising agencies, defined such sentiments as Moral myopia, or when “individuals [have] difficulty seeing ethical issues or seeing them clearly”.

Dimension 4 (“Political Advertising—CSR”) refers to associations about humanitarian and local causes, in particular to children’s welfare, on the one hand, and associations about a concern for political marketing in Lebanon on the other hand. The CSR associations include “ Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) ” (0.9208), “ Nothing with potential to be harmful to children ” (0.7663) and “ Contribution/donation ” (0.9305). Associations for unethical political marketing practices include references to “ Political brainwashing ” (0.8882), “ Black market at times of elections” (0.9993) and “ Politicians abusing the ad system ” (1.00).

Dimension 5 (“Harmful Effects—Cultural Self-Identity”) refers to associations related to promoting the national and cultural identity through traditional icons and values on the one hand, and harm and dishonesty on the other hand. National values are expressed through associations such as “ Strong national brand identity ” (− 0.9164), and “ Nice local twist (using “Lebanese” phrases)” (0.7774). Associations reflecting harm and dishonesty include “ Corruption ” (0.8604), “ Lying ” (0.7742) and “ Unfair ” (0.7518).

The specific combinational pattern derived from our findings adds to our understanding of the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of perceived ad ethics, since we know of no existing study, which positions specific violations in consumer perceived ad ethics (e.g. harm or deception) against specific cultural ideals (e.g. diversity or cultural identity). Unlike previous studies on ad ethics, our study sought general views on “ad ethics”, thus opening up associations linked to ethical ideals as well as violations. We therefore extend existing typologies such as Hyman et al. ( 1994 ) and Drumwright and Murphy ( 2009 ) by proposing a dual approach, namely that for consumers, “ad ethics” is a confluence of ideals and violations which together shape the overall “latitudes or boundaries” of consumer perceived ad ethics. The imperative for this duality is consistent with Hyman ( 2009 , p. 199) who proposed that, “without an ideal for responsible ads, organisations are less likely to avoid irresponsible ads”.

Critically however, we find that although both ad ethics-based violations and ideals are distinct they are also inter-related, in a bipolar manner. Take for instance, the pervasive political advertising landscape of Lebanon positioned against the lack of evidence of CSR practices, or harm against cultural identity. Effectively, our study has provided a mechanism to identify the doppelgänger, or “twin opposite” image (Thompson et al. 2006 ) of individual sub-dimensions comprising “perceived ad ethics”. In doing so, we extend the debate on advertising as a reflection of societal values, but within the context of ad ethics. Therefore, from a theoretical perspective, we provide an initial foray into a distorting “mirroring effect” (cf. Pollay 1986 , 1987 ) but between ethical violations and ideals related to ad ethics. We demonstrate that certain violations in ad ethics are related negatively to specific ideals, the expression of which may be culturally bound. Based on this, it can be argued that the pluralistic and multi-faceted nature of ad ethics is more complex than previously thought. We therefore propose that perceived ad ethics, not unlike ethics in general (Casmir 2013 ; Hall 2013 ) is also a confluence of both universalism and relativism. Whilst the violations derived in the MDS output, or deception, harm, sexual imagery and political advertising, are largely universalist themes in ad ethics and therefore common to most global codes of conduct for advertising (e.g. CAMPC 2011 ), the derived ideals are largely culturally bound and therefore more reflective of relativist themes. To support this proposition, we delve deeper into theorising at the individual dimensional level to demonstrate how the specific pattern arising from our study can indeed be traced to nuances within the socio-cultural fabric of the target audience. In doing so, we also elaborate on existing theories related to individual dimensional levels.

As a polar opposite of the “True functions of advertising”, the “Lack of concern for advertising standards” emerged in consumers’ minds. This should come as no surprise since critics of advertising often propose to strengthen existing industry and legal standards or to introduce regulations as a means to overcome problems inherent in advertising ethics (e.g. Cohen-Eliya and Hammer 2004 ). The fact that both polar dimensions also include positive and negative associations reflects the complexity of this debate. This intra- and inter-dimensional tension suggests an unresolved debate among the Lebanese audience and reflective of the wider debate commonly found in academic research, where advocates of increased regulations face proponents who believe in the inherent functionality of advertising (e.g. Cohen-Eliya and Hammer 2004 ; Phillips 1997 ). It also points to consumers’ ability to articulate the largely macro and philosophical business ethics perspective (Drumwright and Murphy 2009 ) case to ad ethics. However, it is within message based ad ethics dimensions where we see greater culturally influenced derivation.

Although diversity-related aspects, as well as deception, have attracted strong attention within the advertising literature (see for e.g. Hyman et al. 1994 ; Phillips 1997 ; Shabbir and Thwaites 2007 ; Cohen-Eliya and Hammer 2004 ; Taylor and Stern 1997 ; Williams et al. 2004 ), this is the first study to show their categorisation as dimensional opposites. This bipolar nature of diversity and deception can be understood as a contribution to Aditya’s ( 2001 ) call for extending our understanding of deception in marketing to include psycho-sociological effects on individuals and therefore to include ads that have “…the potential to…cause an erosion of ethical values deemed desirable in society”. According to Darke and Ritchie ( 2007 ), deceptive ad content can generate a dual processing effect such that consumers will actively motivate themselves to protect against subsequent deception. Therefore, in a culture where deceptive ad content is associated with recurrent stereotypical portrayals of sectarian differences, as in the case of Lebanon, it is possibly that a dual processing effect generates the ethical ideal of diversity to counter this deceptive theme. In other cultural contexts, other ideals of ethical values may become the primary disassociate counterpart of deceptive ads, depending on public perceptions of which cultural ideals have been violated by the ad sector’s deceptive content.

Sexual imagery has also attracted considerable attention in the extant literature on ad ethics (e.g. Boddewyn 1991 ; Cohan 2001 ; Gould 1994 ; Latour and Henthorne 1994 ) and given its widespread use, the sexualisation of women has traditionally been viewed as one of the most pervasive violations of ad ethics (Boddewyn 1991 ). Our findings indicate that sexual imagery forms a bipolar opposite with moral myopia or when “individuals [have] difficulty seeing ethical issues or seeing them clearly” (Drumwright and Murphy 2004 , p. 11). Moral myopia in our findings was reflected in shifting the blame on the educated consumer or society, arguing that what is legal is moral and emphasising the rights of the advertiser as rationalisations for accepting unethical ad content. Our findings contribute to Belk et al. ( 2005 ) who also found this rationalisation but towards unethical corporate practices as a justification for ambivalence towards unethical consumption. In addition however, the bipolar nature of moral myopia and sexuality suggests that it is possible when sexual expression in ads become normalised in a culture, the public may become desensitised to such an extent that rationalisation becomes the only alternative counterpart. This is consistent with the normalisation of cultural stereotypes since when stereotypes become embedded and normalised within cultures, those cultures may resist breaking such stereotypes by building cognitive defences to justify them (Cohen-Eliya and Hammer 2004 ).

Given its “special status” and “above the law” nature, political advertising has attracted growing public concern (Kaid 2004 ; Lau et al. 2007 ) as well as traditionally being one of the primary ethical concerns in advertising (Hyman et al. 1994 ). The relationship between political communications and CSR has, however, only been discussed from an organisational perspective, whether generally (Aguilera et al. 2007 ; Scherer and Palazzo 2011 ; Jamali and Neville 2011 ; Fooks et al. 2013 ) or within the context of ad agencies (Drumwright and Murphy 2009 ). Negative political communications can, however, also impact civic attitudes and system-based beliefs, or those linked to public attitudes to government and its functionality (Lau et al. 2007 ). The Lebanese political culture provides an ideal context for CSR to emerge as a bipolar dimensional opposite of political advertising. At one extreme, Lebanon is unique in that political advertising has become as pervasive as corporate advertising (Maasri 2009 ) and political mistrust saturated. A report by the World Economic Forum ( 2014 ) for instance scored Lebanon having the highest public mistrust of any country in the world, ranking it 148th out of 148 in the “public trust in politicians” category. Lebanon has historically suffered from a “relative absence of state-sponsored social safety” (Cammett 2014 , p. 38) leaving the space for non-state sectarian actors to instead provide a sense of “compassionate communalism” (Cammett 2014 ). One consequence of this has been a growing consensus that enabling CSR is detached from state support. According to Sakr ( 2013 ), state imposed “bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles” (Sakr 2013 , p. 1) have caused Lebanon to lag behind other MENA countries in harnessing CSR initiatives. Work by Jamali and colleagues (Jamali and Mirshak 2007 ; Jamali et al. 2009 ; Jamali and Neville 2011 ) on CSR in Lebanon finds that executives struggle to prioritise CSR due to political volatility and turbulence. In a healthy political climate, one would expect the political apparatus to be associated with local benefits but our findings indicate that the opposite can also ensue in a climate where mistrust of political communication reaches saturation levels. It would, however, be interesting to assess if other civic attitudes are linked to political advertising in alternative cultural settings.

Harmful effects of advertising emerged as a separate negative dimension of ad ethics, which is in line with the most prevalent criticism of irresponsible ads—their potential for harm (e.g. Phillips 1997 ; Nebenzahl and Jaffe 1998 ; Hyman 2009 ). Positioned against harm, however, is cultural self-identity confirming the salience of this ethical ideal for the Lebanese public. As previously noted, Lebanese advertisers are increasingly keen to place viewers in a “culturally sterile” sphere (Nasr 2010 ). This need has arisen from an historical imperative for post-conflict identity re-construction. As Nagel ( 2000 , p. 226) suggests, the national agenda in Lebanon has been on fostering “an allegiance to Lebanon that supersedes narrow sectarian affiliations”, the latter which has often been perpetuated by Lebanon’s ad landscape. The need for regaining a sense of cultural unity and shedding sectarian differences, which may have been responsible for causing national trauma, is a social imperative in post-conflict societies (LaCapra 1999 ). It is easy therefore to see therefore how associations of harm, the most direct and obvious violation arising from unethical ad content, would be positioned against cultural self-identity, which for any post-conflict society is of paramount importance (Nagel 2000 ; LaCapra 1999 ).

Finally, our study makes a methodological contribution since no study to date has employed an emic, or indeed etic, based approach to derive general thoughts about ad ethics. The MDS approach employed demonstrates that informant-based techniques can provide a viable diagnostic tool for an ad sector to determine what is most salient to their audiences in relation to ad ethics. The bipolar opposites of each dimension represented the “outer limits” of the MDS solution generated and therefore represent the boundaries or latitudes of perceived ad ethics, or the most salient issues. It may be that additional intra-dimensional themes also exist, formed from combinations of dimensions but any such additional themes, would by default, be shaped by one or more of the bipolar themes already identified. Additional intra-dimensional sub-clusters of themes would almost certainly add to the emic derivation of the target audience’s unique fingerprint of ad ethics. The value of the MDS technique has therefore been in fulfilling the original aim of the study of determining the latitudes or boundaries of perceived ad ethics, and therefore the most salient dimensions of ad ethics.

Managerial Implications

Our research provides several managerially relevant insights. The audience-based understanding of ad ethics can and should be integrated in the development of country specific ethical codes that, in contrast to codes formed from generalisations, or global codes of conduct, provide additional guidance for companies’ day-to-day behaviour in the local ad sectors they serve. Ad agencies can benefit from knowing that what may appear salient to their audience can help in the designing of ad content that is socially and morally responsible. Informant-based approaches to determining ad ethics provide the ad sector with a “finger on the pulse” assessment as part of an on-going evaluation of consumer public opinion in relation to ad ethics. Our approach therefore advocates a shift away from ad and research agency pre-determined parameters for evaluating ad ethics to an informant based and therefore emic orientation in defining and understanding the priorities, which should shape the ethicality of ads.

Identifying the bipolar nature of ethical domains also has important implications for regulating the ad sector and for ad agencies eager to align their content with their target audience norms and values, since if ad content fails to promote particular cultural ideals, this may become linked to a particular violation in ad ethics. Knowing which cultural ideals are linked to perceived violations can help the sector to better understand how its own content relates to its target audience’s understanding of ethics. Promoting one end of a dimension, diversity for instance, may help in leveraging against public perceptions against its bipolar opposite, or deception. Similarly, reducing deceptive content may become linked to a heightened sense of advertiser responsibility towards diversity. Further research would be needed to validate this strategic option for improving ethical standards in ad content, but our study provides an initial foray into identifying patterns between salient themes of ad ethics.

Limitations

Despite the obvious utility of MDS, it is not without limitations. A key limitation is the degeneracy of solutions, which occurs when perceptual maps “are not accurate representations of the similarity responses” (Hair et al. 2010 , p. 558). This problem could arise if all respondents provide similar word associations, if a local minimum is reached despite low stress levels, if there are other inconsistencies in the data or if the MDS program cannot reach a stable solution. Recommendations to deal with degeneracy proposed by Hair et al. ( 2010 ) were followed and we did not detect any common signs of degeneracy (no perceptual output was characterised by either a circular pattern (that is when objects are found to be equally similar) or a clustered pattern (where objects are grouped at bipolar ends of a single dimension).

We also recognise the cross-sectional nature of the sample does not take into account potential changes in the audience’s perceptions over time. Just as ethical relativism is based on societal definitions of morality, cultures and underlying social norms do evolve and change over time (Crane and Matten 2004 ). This is particularly the case with public perceptions influenced by controversies. The authors are for instance currently engaged in assessing the effect of the Jimmy Saville sexual child abuse controversy in the UK, on pre- and post-perceptions of child abuse in the British public to demonstrate such shifting perceptions.

Avenues for Further Research

This study is by no means an exhaustive one and as such provides an interesting platform for further research avenues. For instance, the specific dimensions we derived in our study are specific to the Lebanese public’s perspective. Do alternative cultural contexts generate the same key dimensions but in alternative combinations? How specific or generalizable is ethics in advertising cross-culturally? Is the Lebanese “fingerprint” truly a “fingerprint” or does it shift over time, that is how stable is this solution? Given the simplicity of conducting an MDS study and the increasing need to legitimise advertisement content in conjunction with the audience’s perspective, MDS is ideal as a “finger on the pulse” diagnostic tool for the sector to determine the fluctuating and/or stable underlying structure of perceived ad ethics.

We strongly suggest future researchers to incorporate other socio-demographic and attitudinal constructs (e.g. religion, willingness to boycott unethically advertised products) and perhaps behaviours (e.g. media consumption and literacy) to advance our understanding of a segmentional approach to understanding ad ethics. Carrigan et al. ( 2005 p. 488) explain that measurements in an international setting “should be developed in those settings not modified to reflect their contextual specifics”. An MDS-based approach clearly responds to this recommendation by drawing a picture of a specific population’s unique understanding of ad ethics. Future research might use the findings presented within this study, as well as MDS applied to other stakeholder groups, to assess potential differences between academic, practitioner and consumer understanding of ethics in advertising. A cross-cultural study to assess the impact of cultural dimensions on perception of ethics also constitutes an interesting avenue for further research. It is likely that some of the dimensions derived in this study are particularly salient to the Lebanese context, such as political marketing or cultural identity congruence. Further research would be needed to validate how locally determined perceived ad ethics truly is.

Beyond establishing MDS as viable methodological approach, we provide a first illustration of how ad ethics is perceived from an audience perspective. This perspective has been largely missing from the academic debate, but the knowledge can be leveraged to pre-empt unwarranted consumer-based outcomes. The multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics indicates a complex inter-play between consumer concerns, the precise nature influenced by local and cultural priorities but also underpinned by more universal concerns related to ad ethics. Taken collectively, we believe that a viewer-based conceptualisation of ad ethics was long necessary and hope that the findings provided within this paper will stimulate more informant-based research to further understand the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics.

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Appendix: Example of Consistency Check for dimensions 3 (Moral Myopia–Sexuality) and 4 (CSR—Political advertising)

Appendix shows an exemplar two-dimensional solution for dimensions 3 and 4. At the negative end of dimension 3, associations such as “ use and display of women ”, “ jewellery ads with sex appeal ” and “ large billboard ads for underwear ” suggest the label “Sexuality”. The opposing end of dimension 3 presents associations which reflect a degree of justification for the ad sector, such as “ Advertising messages are most of the time honest ”, and “ advertising is only a tool ” and combined with other associations emphasizes the rights of the advertiser as rationalisations for accepting unethical ad content; therefore, this pole is coined “moral myopia” (Drumwright and Murphy, 2004 ). The first emergent dimension is hence termed “Sexuality–Moral Myopia”. At the endpoints of dimension 4, we find associations such as “ contributions/donations ”, “ Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon ”, “ SESOBEL social service for children ”, “ Corporate Social Responsibility ” and “ Humanitarian Ads for free ”, which are opposed to elicitations such as “ Black market at times of elections ” and “ politicians abusing the ad system ”. Consequently, the underlying continuum of this dimension is named “Corporate Social Responsibility-Politics”.

A distinct cluster is visible at the negative endpoint of dimension 3 suggesting a very strong “Sexuality” variable. The associations load high on this dimension and very low on others. Inspection of the quadrant formed by the 2 dimension shows that the associations are consistent with the 2 dimensions. Associations located at the lower left quadrant such as “ No drugs ” (− 0.469939, − 0.720517), “ No vulgar, trashy, inappropriate images for kids ” − 0.38411, − 0.614664) and “ killing innocence of the youth ” (− 0.324771, − 0.341811) reflect both a sexual orientation and a humanitarian cause. Similarly, associations on the upper left quadrant such as “ in some conservative regions, no freedom in advertising ” (− 0.51779, 0.450798) and “ filling the road with distasteful ads ” (− 0.505971, 0.299807) reflect a blend of the following two axes: “Politics” and “Sexuality”. Another cluster is located centrally at the left quadrant, suggesting the existing interference of “Sexuality” with both “Politics” and “CSR”. This interference remains minor as few items seem to be loading very high on Sexuality and very high on Politics simultaneously. This seems reasonable, as although common grounds between those axes exist (as explained before), Sexuality and Politics are bipolar according to our audience’s perception.

Associations located at the other two right quadrants are more strongly spread, and thus more associations are representative of the axes. This suggests the reconciliation of Politics and CSR as being overlapping into Moral Myopia. The lower right quadrant comprises associations such as “ sometimes fair ” (0.533028, − 0.595314) and “ we rarely see a lie or a false promotion ” (0.58871, − 0.524907) that reflect the public silence concerning ad ethics whilst suggesting company ethics or CSR. Associations at the top right quadrant such as “ exceptions, always ” (0.418527, 0.802085), “ a tricky business ” (0.567855, 0.514279), “ critical decisions ” (0.590696, 0.560251) and “ complication ” 0.496771, 0.575926) are compatible with the poles “Politics” and “Moral Myopia”. Many items seem to load on both of those dimensional poles, mirroring the complexity of the political arena in Lebanon. This type of analysis represents the depth of constant comparative analysis conducted for different patterns of dimensional inter-relations, in order to validate the conceptualisation of bipolar opposites.

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Shabbir, H.A., Maalouf, H., Griessmair, M. et al. Exploring Perceptions of Advertising Ethics: An Informant-Derived Approach. J Bus Ethics 159 , 727–744 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3784-7

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Received : 03 November 2016

Accepted : 08 January 2018

Published : 23 January 2018

Issue Date : October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3784-7

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Marketing and Advertising — The Rhetoric of Advertising: Analyzing Persuasive Techniques and Ethics

The Rhetoric of Advertising: Analyzing Persuasive Techniques and Ethics

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The purpose of advertisements, the rhetorical triangle, language use, visual design, target audience, the ethics of advertising.

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Impact of Unethical Advertising, Misleading Information or Deceptive Advertising on Customer Purchasing Intention with Mediating Effect of Word of Mouth: Case of Pakistan

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International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development Volume 1, Issue 4, October 2015, Pages 49 – 69 Impact of Unethical Advertising, Misleading Information or Deceptive Advertising on Customer Purchasing Intention with Mediating Effect of Word of Mouth: Case of Pakistan DOI: 10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.14.2005 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.14.2005 1 Najeeb Ullah, 2 Mustansar Hussain 1 2 Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Federal, Pakistan

Abstract: This paper aims to study the effect of Unethical advertising, misleading information or deception and stereotyping advertising impact on Customer purchase intention with mediating effect of word-of-mouth (WOM) in Pakistan. Based on variables, the authors tried to identify the effects of each variable to customer satisfaction. Data were collected through field research (questionnaire) among 600 Respondent who have their own different levels and fields like, Employee, students, and common people from twin city Islamabad & Rawalpindi. The results shows that unethical Advertising or misleading information and stereotyping advertising are negatively linked with customer buying behaviour or purchase intention, while word of mouth is also negatively associated with customer satisfaction. Limitations relate to the use of a non-probability sample and the restricted geographical area of the field research. There had a time constraint which could restrict many aspects of research for further elaboration. unethical advertising

Keywords: Unethical advertising, Misleading information, Deceptive advertising, Stereotyping advertising, Word of mouth, Customer purchase intention

Impact of Unethical Advertising, Misleading

1. Introduction

Advertising is one of the most integral parts of a business entity. Organizations all around the world spend billions of dollars every year to promote their products and advertising is one of the tools to promote their product globally. As businesses run across border, the role and greatness of advertising expenditure have expanded thus require a close examination in terms of its roles and functions. Advertising is a form of communication which is used to persuade a specific group of people to take some new action. Advertising is considered as a major and important element for the economic growth of the marketers and different companies in competition (Ryans, 1996).  Advertising is usually a paid form of publicity by some sponsor and reached through various traditional media such as television, commercial radio advertisement, outdoor advertising, newspaper, magazine mail or modern media such as blogs, websites and text messages. Furthermore the developments and technological advancements have turned advertising to a more pervasive and powerful in its impact and affect (Leiss et al., 1986). Early advertisers assumed that advertising is very powerful what is said “gets through and strongly achieves the anticipated and persuasive objectives as “ the early bullet or “internal needle” models of communication which has given rise to the earliest concept of communication effects, “who says what to whom through what medium with what effect” Bryant and Zeeman 1944). The introduction of new technologies has set a new playing field in which advertisers have to be up to-date with new media such as advertising through web sites and also through mobile phones. According to the Global Advertising Industry Profile, the global advertising market is forecasted to have a value of 90.4 billion dollar in 2011, an increase of 28% since 2006 (Datamonitor Plc, Oct 2007). Wells et al., Cannon, and Kotler et al. (2006, p. 5; 1973, p. 11; 1999, p. 674) define modern advertising as “a paid persuasive communication that uses non-personal mass media-as well as other forms of interactive communication-to reach broad audiences to connect an identified sponsor with a target audience”. The definition is with the exception of advertisements that appear in the forms of public service announcements in which the ad space is donated or allocated without any expense by the media.

This is a shift from the old perception of advertisements in which they come in the forms of public announcers in the market, sandwich boards, flyers and other methods which are largely done by the proprietors themselves and these advertisements were sometime free of charge. Belch and Belch (2004, p. 16) further enhanced the definition by adding that the persuasive communication is conducted to promote an organization, product, service, or an idea. Consumers buying behaviour has always been given so much importance and space in the literature study of impact of advertising regarding its effectiveness (Ajzen, 2002). Most of the time consumers buying behaviour is influenced by liking or disliking of consumer towards the advertisement of the product, advertised (Smith et al., 2002). Likewise, Allen. Et al., (1992) argue that it is actually the emotional reaction which is developed after the advertising, for the product advertised, that influences the consumer behaviour. In the words of Gorn, 1982, the consumer behaviour towards a product is totally depending on advertising, without any assessment of the quality of the product. Furthermore, Controversies over the impact of advertising on the consumer’s buying trends and habits has always been present (George, 1989).

Sometimes the advertisers over exaggerate about the product’s benefits in such a tactful manner that consumer goes psychologically under the pressure of advertising persuasiveness and intentionally decides to buy the advertised product (Smith et al., 2006). In the point of view of some people, now most of the consumers avoid the advertisement, because they consider the advertisement, just annoying and misleading (Bishop, 1997). Advertisements have been attacked on psychological, sociological, aesthetic and political grounds. From the point of view of a common lay man, what is the purpose of advertising? Some critics even criticize and consider advertising very harmful to the collective behaviors of the society (Barbara, J. P 1997). But defenders of advertising always give a strong argument in its favor that basic aim of advertising is to sell the products, rather its effects on cultural values of the society (Gold, 1987). In the ancient days, human used to be self-sufficient. In other words, the plant or hunt for their food. Furthermore, they will try to find or make things that can satisfy their basic needs. As time goes by, their self-sufficient production began to show signs of surplus and sometime this surplus cannot fulfil other necessities. Incidentally, they have to turn to trading to fulfil their needs and to cash in their production surplus. They began to realize that in trading, they have to compete with other individuals with the same products, and thus advertising takes its first peek into the world. All the developments and changes in advertising do not come without a price. Some scholars argue that advertising can prop up ethical issues (Drumwright, 1993; Indrayana, 2004; Tinarbuko, 2002; Kunkel, Wilcox, Cantor, Palmer, Linn, and Dowrick, 2004; Aitchison, 2002; Tanudjaja, 2002).

These ethical issues include women exploitation, subliminal perception, and advertising to children, deceptive advertising, and other issues which can lead to moral deterioration of the society (Shabbir and Thwaites, 2007; Murphy, 1998; Blair, Stephenson, Hill, and Green, 2006). The fact that potentially unethical advertisements are reaching the marketplace suggested that current methods of evaluating advertisements may be insufficient for some of today’s controversial or innovative campaigns (Bush and Bush, 1994). Ethics is one of the branches of philosophy (Zubair, 1987). According to Spence and Heekeren (2005, p. 2), ethics can be defined as “a set of prescriptive rules, principles, values, and virtues of character that inform and guide interpersonal: intrapersonal conduct”. Schlegelmilch (1998, pp. 6-7) further argues that ethics is hard to define due to the fact that it cannot be directly measured and it originates from many influences such as internal and external environmental influences. Dr H. Hamzah Ya’qub (1985, p. 13) in his book, Etika Islam: Pembinaan Akhlaqulkarimah, perceives ethics as a body of knowledge that examines good and bad/right and wrong by observing human behaviours. There are extensive researches done on business ethics in general (De George, 1987; Tsalikis and Seaton, 2007; Sabrin, 2002). Researches in business ethics covers all the functions of business thus it also covers the area of advertising and promotion. Due to the fact that advertising stirs ethical controversies, numerous studies from different perspectives have been done to understand this phenomenon (Nebenzahl and Jaffe, 1998; Fam, Waller, and Erdogan, 2004; Waller and Kam, 2000).

There is a general point of view of many societal members, that advertising may have a negative, unintended or intended influence on consumers’ buying trends (Burr and Burr 1977 and Verbeke, W. 1992). Actually advertising has a strong potential on changing our social values, as well our buying behaviours through influencing our cultural values (Schudson, 1984). Specifically, advertising may lead a consumer to prefer material objects over more morally and socially oriented alternatives; it may potentially increase, conflict and lead to an unhappier and a more disappointed person of the society (Goldberg and Gom 1978). While the major aim of advertising is to give something new, creative and useful to get long term benefits of brand loyalty and image building of the product and company by establishing an emotional relationship and persuasion for buying that product. This is also a debatable issue that which kind of impact of advertising effects the beliefs and collective attitudes of the consumer with respect to the buying behaviour (Barbara, J. 1997). In the modern times, it’s really, difficult to be successful in persuasion and to mould or effect the buying behaviour of consumer in this era of tough competition (Robinson, 1997). With the success of advertising field, now it has been admitted as a universal factor that advertising plays a very influencing role in the consumers’ behaviours (Beil and Bridgewater, 1990).

If the consumers could understand the intention of advertisements, then the potential effect of advertising may be reduced. As the impact of television advertising allows consumers to use the cognitive defences, such as to produce counter arguments and reasons (Bruck, A, and Goldberg 1988). Likewise, the recognition of the false psychological impact of advertisements, allows them to avoid advertisements, break by zapping to some other channel, as it has always been shown that majority of viewers Zap at least as much during the advertising as they do during common programs (Heater and Greenberg 1985). For persuading and reaching to the consumer, advertising is considered the most effective and powerful source (Siropolis, 1997). Hence, whether or not impact of advertising on consumers buying trends is a very important issue to investigate, from the consumers or buyers point of view. Furthermore from the advertiser point of view as it will alter the impact and effectiveness of their advertisements. Likewise George (1989) stated that controversies over the effects of commercials have always been present. Advertising is accused of exploiting the feelings and building of personal anxieties, over emphasizing the material side of life and distortion of human and ethical values in children.

Due to the strong impact of advertising, it is the moral duty of advertisers to practice the code of ethics, during the promotion of their products. The purpose of advertising should be the guidance of consumer rather than blackmailing and threatening by pushing forcefully to buy that product. Proper and effective advertising always help the companies and marketers to improve their brand image and increase their share in the market (Ninan, 2008). Effective advertising is actually the other name of persuasion and liking or disliking attitude of consumer towards some particular product or advertising (Mehta, 2000; Stone et al., 2000). There are a number of factors in advertising which contribute a lot in changing the consumers’ buying behaviour. Like likeability, brand image, persuasiveness, celebrity endorsement, information about the product, entertainment etc.

1.1. Specific Problem Statement

To analyze the impact of unethical advertising Misleading, deception toward Word of mouth on customer purchase intention.

1.2. Significance of Research

This study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of how unethical advertising and Stereotyping, Misleading with the mediating effect of word of mouth in the Electronic Media on evidence from Pakistan. It considers different dimensions of unethical Advertising, including soft selling, unethical ads timely execution, and introduces ads as important mediator – word of mouth – to examine the relationship between advertising, effects on buying behaviour or customer purchase intention. Most of the time, customer get dissatisfied from advertising due to untimely execution and non-fulfilment, of given commitment, study will describe the different dimensions and elements of the success and failure impacts of buying behaviour variations.

1.3. Research Objectives

Customer satisfaction through Perceived quality of services and commitment is a concept that is gradually important because of its impact on customer satisfaction, word of mouth and other effects on the performance and profitability of a company. Jayawardhena and Farrell (2011) further note that perceived unfell commitment is negatively linked to customer satisfaction. Kuo et al. (2009) observes the associations among service quality, perceived commitments, customer satisfaction and post-buying objectives and behavioral response of the customers which creates word of mouth even positive or negative. This study will mainly focus on how unethical Advertising and perceived service commitments impact overall customer satisfaction and how word of mouth mediates between independent and dependent variable. unethical advertising, misleading advertisements

1.4. Gap Identification

Previous studies have been done in developed countries while Pakistan is a developing country. Researchers have mainly focused on service quality and customer satisfaction, Ažman, S., and Gomišček, B. (2014).but another issue of unethical Advertising has been over ruled, which makes customer’s mind to be loyal with company or to switch another possibility or any other service provider. Secondly, on the basis of advertising customer perceives the overall image of the company for future purchase. Deceptive advertising refers to, time given by the services providers to the customer. It is basically complain resolution time and it has a great impact on customer purchase intention. Advertising is a moment of truth as customer perceives the high end service commitment. It relates with the commitment from service provider and the time given to the customer for the execution and fulfillment of the commitment and definitely it is very much crucial, in terms of customer satisfaction. The basis of unethical advertising is the effects of bad experiences with the complete services provided by the service provider’ therefore, we suggest that service providers should confirm that there should not be no negative abnormalities in the ads shooting as well as displaying at electronic media and print media. Therefore Word of mouth is taken as Mediating variable to improve the study and explain how unethical advertising impacts on customer purchase intention.

2. Literature Review

Consumers are faced with a very large numbers of advertisements every day in different media. This makes the job of the policy makers very difficult to judge the misleading nature of all such messages. The task can be made simpler if such questions are reserved only for critical case, the majority of the work should concern itself not with the questions whether an advertisement does mislead, but whether it has the capacity to mislead (Preston, 1977).

When consumers believe and advertisement to be true when is actually false, consumers may be “harmed” (Attas, 1999). Individuals prefer their beliefs to be true, and if consumer is misled by advertisement, then the consumer may be claims and inconspicuous claims lead to s significantly higher levels of false beliefs (e.g., lack of side effects, low price and speed of relief) than did the true or no information claims. The findings are consistent with a body research, showing that consumers constantly misconstrue some types of advertisement claims and that the implication drawn from questionable claims are treated as factual (Preston, 1967).

In addition, false beliefs often persist even following the presentation of corrective information (Aderson, 1983). Also certain advertisements make claims that seem to be exaggerated on the face. It therefore is not in-genuine to understand that the possibility of such claims being called deceptive is very slim. Russo (1976) and his co-workers (RussoMetcalf, and Stephens 1981) emphasized that holding a false belief after being exposed to the does not imply that the advertisements caused the belief.

Many alleged deceptive claims nowadays are implicitly manipulative rather than outright false (Mazis, 2005; Shanahan and Hopkins, 2007). The literature has documented solid evidence of deception by implication. For example, in a study about attribute claims of ibuprofen based brands, Burke et al. (1988) examine four types of claims no attribute information, truth, expansion implications, and inconspicuous qualification implications. They find that expansion and inconspicuous qualification implications increase respondents‟ false attribute beliefs about headache pain relief, side effects, and speed of relief.

In another study (Pechmann 1996), a company claims that it charges the lowest rate for a particular service but does not mention that it charges more than competitors for other required services. Due to erroneous inferences, respondents tend to believe that this company has the lowest overall price. Erroneous inferences can expand beyond the claimed attributes. Barone and Miniard (1999) expose respondents to a partially comparative advertisement containing a combination of comparative and non-comparative claims.

Deceptive claims take advantage of such presuppositions without clarifying the exact meanings in specific contexts. For instance, a package label that claims “50% more recycled content than before” suggests an increase of recycled goods by one half; however, the manufacturer’s total increase of recycled content has only improved from 2% to 3%. Although the message is technically true, the FTC rules this claim deceptive because the label can create false impressions (Federal Trade Commission, 2010).

The relationship marketing literature recognizes another potential element of customer loyalty, services relationship commitment (Bendapudi and Berry 1997; Morgan and Hunt 1994). Drawing on the organizational behavior literature (Meyer and Allen 1997), marketing scholars have variously defined commitment as ‘a desire to maintain a relationship’ (Moorman, Deshpand6, and Zaltman 1993; Morgan and Hunt 1994), a pledge of continuity between parties (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1997), the sacrifice or potential for sacrifice if a relationship ends (Anderson and Weitz 1992), and the absence of competitive offerings (Gundlach, Achrol, and Mentzer 1995). These various sources create a “stickiness” that keeps customers loyal to a brand or company even when satisfaction may be low.

2.1 Deceptive Advertising

Publicizing has constantly raised a considerable measure of feedback from people in general and various studies have been done for the most part on the ranges of effect of deceptive promoting towards buyers. Studies have demonstrated that the customers think promoting frequently abuses expansive moral standards (Treise, Weigold, Conna, and Garrison, 1994). A few people may contend that the issue of promoting morals is a confusing expression (Beltramini, 1999). Duplicity is characterized as a false or misdirecting claim in publicizing (Hyman M. , 1990). As indicated by Armstrong, Gurol and Russ (1979), there are three critical parts of striking trickiness, for example, conviction, deception and importance. From a deontological viewpoint, a publicizing case is conceivably beguiling in the event that it can be indicated to empower mixed up activities by buyers.

In the article, The Lowest Moment in Advertising, the writer contends that the most hostile and the most boring notices in the 90s territories from being sexually unequivocal in nature up until being harsh to a few sections of the general public particularly the minorities (Anonymous, 2003). A few researchers perspective publicizing as sustaining realism, narrow-mindedness, tension, sexual distraction and loss of self confidence (Pollay, 1986). Michael R. Hyman, Richard Tansey, and James W. Clark (1994) composed an article on the advancement and advancement of scrutinizes on promoting morals and the figured out that publicizing morals is still a standard point and it is not a depleted subject.

They suggested that more researches should be done on topics such as tobacco advertising and also proposed new researches on scales to measure advertisements ethicality. On the opposite side of the coin, Edward Spence and Brett Van Heekeren’s book on publicizing morals concentrates on distinguishing, looking at, and assessing moral issues that emerge in arranging and execution of The Journal of promoting procedure (Spence and Heekeren, 2005).

Their routines for understanding and contemplating promoting morals are centred on the publicizing procedures. So as to recognize deceiving and tricky publicizing, Russo, Metcalf and Stephens proposed three option perspectives, for example, extortion, deception and misleadingness on the grounds that they are parallel to the three parts of promoting correspondence; the sponsor, the message, and the customer convictions about the publicized item (Russo, Metcalf, and Stephens, 1981).

2.1.1 What is Deception?

The Need for a Definition Deception in advertising is far from a new concern. Claims made for remedies hundreds of years ago were often so deceitful that by today’s standards they are humorous. While common law dealt with false advertising, the maxim of caveat emptor was in full sway for many years. Traditionally, courts have been quite lenient and have tended to hold that the consumer should have examined the goods in question more adequately or that the advertisements merely represented “matters of opinion” and should have been treated with scepticism. In 1914 the Federal Trade Commission was formed, and the FTC has been involved in the regulation of advertising from its very first complaint. Unfortunately, even though the commission has issued many rulings since 1914, it is not were “seen” as deceptive and the same advertisements being described as annoying, offensive, and insulting to the intelligence. Yet, Haefner also found that consumers’ perceptions of deception did not agree with those of FTC attorneys for the same Products.

The Need for a Definition Deception in publicizing is a long way from another concern. Cases made for cures many years back were regularly so beguiling that by all accounts they are amusing. While normal law managed false promoting, the proverb of proviso emptor was in full influence for a long time. Customarily, courts have been very tolerant and have had a tendency, to hold that the buyer ought to have inspected the merchandise being referred to all the more satisfactorily, or that the notices simply spoke to “matters of assessment” and ought to have been treated with suspicion. In 1914 the Federal Trade Commission was shaped, and the FTC has been included in the regulation of publicizing from its first objection. Sadly, despite the fact that the commission has issued numerous decisions since 1914, it is not were “seen” as tricky and the same ads being portrayed as irritating, hostile, and offending to the insight. Yet, Haefner likewise found that shoppers’ view of misdirection did not concur with those of FTC lawyers for the same Items.

2.2 Definition of Misleadingness

2.2.1 procedures for detection of misleadingness.

The test simply depicted gives the accompanying confirmation on which to base a judgment that a commercial is misdirecting false convictions held by purchasers who did and did not see an advertisement, furthermore by buyers who saw an adjusted rendition of the same notice. In view of this confirmation, by what means can a deceptive promotion be recognized?

2.2.2 Consumer Belief of a False Claim

Is it adequate to exhibit that a case is false and that individuals accept the case? This is a case actuality error combined with direct proof that individuals accept the case. Numerous scientists would answer yes to this inquiry, with one capability. They would oblige that the rate of deceived customers surpass some base percent) expected to pronounce a promotion deluding (Gellhorn 1969; Jacoby and Small 1975). As has been contended somewhere else, the issue of discovering the best esteem, or even a few qualities, of n percent is insoluble (Russo 1976). For every advertisement the watched rate of misdirected shoppers must be judged against its own standard, not against some generally appropriate cut-off.

2.2.3 Plan for Detecting Deception

What takes after is an endeavour to exchange the rationale displayed above into an arrangement of methodologies that can be utilized to screen promotions for conceivable misleading effect on buyers. At this phase of improvement, insufficient is thought about these ways to deal with propose that they can distinguish double dealing in promoting. Nonetheless, they ought to have the capacity to spot potential misuses that can be investigated in point of interest, utilizing behavioural examination techniques that loan themselves to the particular issue nearby.

Every one of the three of the methodology proposed here have as their establishment the accompanying two suppositions, If a useful quality has obtained a high likelihood of being connected with a particular brand when, indeed, target confirmation is actually or needs capability to be genuine, and this conviction is emphatically assessed, then, by both of the already specified definitions, misleading convictions exist. On the off chance that a non-functional trait is seen by buyers as a practical quality and decidedly assessed, misleading convictions exist.

2.2.4 Increased Belief in a False Claim after Exposure to an Advertisement

A second approach portrays the principle blemish of the first by obliging a causal exhibition of misleadingness. An advertisement is distinguished as deceptive at whatever point presentation to that promotion builds the false conviction held by buyers. That is, the extent of purchasers holding a misleadingly false conviction is more noteworthy for the gathering that perspectives the advertisement than for the control bunch that does not see the commercial. We call this incremental Misleadingness.

2.2.5 Less Misleadingly False Beliefs for Corrected than for Original Advertisements

We believe that a properly corrected ad provides the desired comparison. For each of the ten original ads a corrected version was designed, to remove the original claim fact discrepancy, and to affect no other aspects of the ads. Prison condition should alter only the variable of interest and hold constant everything else. Because the corrected ad changes only the misleading component, it is better able than the no-ad condition to sense whether consumers are perceiving, and being exploited by, this misleading component. 10 The use of a corrected ad as the standard of comparison was proposed by Jacoby and Small (1975).

2.2.6 Normative Belief Technique

This strategy is in light of the presumption that there is some “ideal” arrangement of utilitarian item traits for every item class. Ideal is characterized as that gathering of qualities that is vital and sufficient to characterize an item class and would speak to the agreement, of customers who were enough educated. Sufficiently educated customers are the individuals who have had the chance to gain broad data about the item class. A further supposition essential for this system is that there exists a “worthy” scope of probabilities connected with every trait. Satisfactory is characterized as the scope of probabilities for every trait connected with an item, landed at by an agreement of enough educated customers. The standardizing conviction method would be made operational in the accompanying way. To begin with, item class standards for item qualities must be set up. This is a fragile procedure and one loaded with various issues.

The methodology taken by the specialists in the study was to comprehend which established theory1 being utilized by promoting experts as a part of their responses towards publicizing morals by and large. Zinkhan, then again, recommended that so as to comprehend publicizing morals, scientists need to distinguish promoting practices which are possibly harming to the general public (Zinkhan, 1994). Maria Cecilia Countinho de Arruda and Marcelo Leme de Arruda directed a study with a reason for existing is to convince the people included in the promoting business to intercede about the qualities installed in the battles they created, directing them towards the general objective, helping them to locate a shrewd and judicious method for acting (Arruda and Arruda, 1999). Another study was finished by Hackley with the goal to investigate how morals in and of publicizing may be liable to examination inside of a comprehensively social constructionist point of view (Hackley, 1999). The social constructionist development in social brain science has formed into an extensive variety of exploration systems and methodologies. One of the components under social constructionist is its mutualist hypothesis of significance (Still, 1992).

2.3 Stereotyping Sex and Gender Stereotype

Advertising does not portray men and women in realistic ways because the images we see daily reveal the class ideology of our society (Mayne, 2000). The advertisers need to reconsider the use of strong overt sexual appeals, especially given the controversial issue surrounding, such advertising stimuli and their fashionable use to crack through the media clutter (LaTour and Henthorne, 1994). Even though gender and sexual stereotypes are among the highly publicized unethical use and application of advertising, the industry itself is allegedly also guilty of perpetuating stereotypes and discrimination related to age (Carrigan and Szmigin, 2000). Apart from that, not only are older people not used very often in mainstream advertising, there are also a very limited number of products that old people are considered suitable to advertise (Carrigan and Szmigin, 2000b).of their advertisements (Szmigin and Carrigan, 2000).

This is supported by a research in the US in which it shows that in majority of the television commercials, the elderly are not casted as major roles (Swayne and Greco, 1987). Even though there are voluntary advertising codes that govern the issue of tobacco advertising, 17 percent of the models used in these advertisements are under the age of 25 because regardless of viewers’ age, the younger models are considered to be more attractive than the older models (Mazis, Ringold, Perry, and Denman, 1992). Peterson, Milliman and Erefmeyer (1992; 1990) argue that advertisers are making a serious error for neglecting this segment of the population because the size and demand from this segment is growing.

Aside from subliminal promoting, another territory that has empowered exploration intrigues among researchers is in the zone of sex and sex control and misuse in publicizing. Ladies have been the point of convergence of sexual publicizing in the past however the male partners are getting up to speed quickly (Blair, Stephenson, Hill, and Green, 2006). Cohan (2001) contends that promotions can be effective in creating deals without depicting ladies as things or sexual item, and without propagating different shortcoming generalizations. As advertisers battle to separate and attract consideration regarding their item offerings, the utilization of suggestive substance has turn out to be progressively visiting (Henthorne and LaTour, 1995).

2.4 Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is defined as a customer’s overall evaluation of the performance of an offering to date (John- son and Fornell2001). This overall satisfaction has a strong positive effect on customer loyalty intentions across a wide range of product and service categories; including telecommunication services (Fornell2002; Fornell et al. 1996).The concept of customer satisfaction has received much research attention in recent years. Satisfying customers is a business challenge in today’s competitive marketplace. Today, firms have realized how important it is to understand, meet and predict customers’ needs. Customers have also become increasingly conscious of their value to their service provider. Due to the highly competitive nature in the telecom sector, customers will be the key factor in determining the success of the enterprise. In short, under such intense competition, the service provider, that has the largest customer base and the highest customer retention rate will be a market leader in the industry. Hence, knowing customers’ needs how they feel about the company and their expectations have become critically important for maximizing customer retention. Studies have shown that the long-term success of a firm is closely related to its ability to adapt to customer needs and changing preferences (Takala et al., 2006). Customer satisfaction is also considered as critical to the conduct of business in today’s competitive marketplace and telecom companies are no exception (Ehigie, 2006). This possession and retention of customers depends upon the customer’s perceived value. Customers’ perceived value is the perception of customers about quality, social psychology, benefits, compensation and money related to the firm or services. So if the customer’s perceived value is positive then it will generate the customer’s satisfaction.

On the basis of these studies, we expect customer satisfaction to have a significant influence on customer retention that varies across customers. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty can only be possible through effective first rated customer services that include commitments with the customers and fulfilment of those commitments through effective turnaround time. Research has shown that service satisfactions can significantly enhance customers’ quality of life (Dagger and Sweeney, 2006) and enable service providers to determine specific problems of customers to take corrective action (Oja, Kouri, and Pakarinen, 2006). It has also been shown that dissatisfied customers tend to complain to the establishment or seek compensation from them more often to release cognitive dissonance and failed consumption experiences (Nyer, 1999). Our focus in this research is on customer satisfaction with complaint resolution

2.5 Word of Mouth

WOM is one of the most powerful forces in the marketplace and is defined as informal conversations about the service or product between people who are independent of the company providing the product or the service, and in a medium independent of the company (Silverman, 1997). WOM marketing has been found to be particularly relevant to services (Silverman, 1997; Sweeney et al., 2008).

Defined as any communication about a service firm’s offerings, word-of-mouth (WOM) communication is considered a key relational outcome (Freidenand Goldsmith, 1998; Hennig Thurau et al., 2002; Harrison-Walker, 2001).Consumers like to share their experiences with services through word of mouth. According to Keller (2007), the average American engages in 120 word of mouth conversations per week. These conversations are important sources of information for consumers and have a strong impact on product attitudes and sales (Brown and Reingen 1987; Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Herr, Kardes, and Kim 1991). In telecom sector, people use to share their experiences with others which some time becomes a strong perception in other’s mind that may be converted in belief towards services. Customers do expect that they will get exceptional services from service provider therefore the resulted outcome compel them to express their opinion in front of others.

In a world that offers an excess of product information from a wealth of sources (Plummer, 2007), modern consumers have become less attentive to traditional advertising (McDonnell, 2005; Nielsen, 2007). Accordingly, many organizations have reduced expenditures on traditional advertising and re-visited WOM as a powerful marketing tool (Brand Science Institute, 2005; Kilby, 2007). Marketers, naturally, realise the importance of WOM, especially with regard to its implications for trust and associated outcomes (e.g. DeCarlo et al., 2007). Researchers have investigated the factors that motivate WOM because of its known credibility (e.g. Brown et al., 2005; Harrison-Walker, 2001).

3. Theoretical Framework

Figure 1: Research model

3.1 Hypothesis

H1: The relationship between the perceived service commitments and customer satisfaction is positive.

H2: The relationship between Misleading Information and customer purchase intention is negative.

H3: The relationship between Deception and WOM with customer satisfaction is Negative.

H4: The relationship between Stereotyping and WOM with customer satisfaction is positive

H5: The relationship between Stereotyping and Customer purchase intention is Negative.

3.2 Research Methodology

A theoretical framework has proposed to suggest the links among the three dimensions of perceived service commitment, word of mouth and customer satisfaction. A structured questionnaire has been adoptedby a study conducted byBrady, M. K., Knight, G. A., Cronin, J. J., Tomas, G., Hult, M., and Keillor, B. D. (2005) and Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., and Parasuraman, A. (1996). Here, we collect data from employees in telecom industry of Pakistan. The constructs has been measured by using established scales. The data was collected for this study from Pakistan from of 2 cities; Rawalpindi and Islamabad. They had requested to give their answers as honestly as they could as their name will not be mentioned anywhere and their given information will be kept confidential and they were requested to not leave any question unanswered.

The scores are subjected to statistical analysis for testing the hypothesis of the study. The study is conducted on different level of population like student and professional. Convenience sampling is used to select the sample size of participants. A sample size of 600 respondents selected from the population and a questionnaire was adopted and distributed among 600 the customers respondents have filled the questionnaire accurately.

3.3 Research Design

This specific study is a cross sectional and hypotheses testing study conducted to explore the relationship between unethical advertising independent variables, toward impact on customer Purchase intention. The significance of the relationship has been studied on the survey based primary data. It will also examine the word of mouth as a mediating variable on perceived service commitments. The study will be cross sectional and data will be gathered at one point of time,

3.4 Data Collection Method

Data collection is a systematic process of gathering information pertinent to objectives and purpose of the study (Bums & Grove, 1999). Data can be divided into primary and secondary data. Primary data is original data gathered by the researcher from respondents and secondary data consisted of information gathered by others for same purpose or some other purpose and researcher will be using that data to support and strengthen his research. Sources of secondary data may be text books, internet, and financial reports of the company and already published articles.Secondary data saves time and avoid re-invention while primary data collection is quite time taking and basic data collection. The main disadvantage of using secondary data is the geographical difference and different researchers have already worked on it at different places, so sometimes it may not be as such useful for researcher and sometimes there may be a question of data validation and its responsibility of researcher to check the accuracy of secondary data. Although secondary data is used initially for problem and hypothesis but even though primary data collection method has been used to gather the information by own and to relate our study with particular geographical area that elaborates the study in an appropriate way. Therefore, primary data through surveys, questionnaires and interviews can fit best to elaborate the study. Questionnaire based survey is easier to manage and less expensive, also privacy is assured (Leary, 1995).Primary data was collected through questionnaire .There were few items in demographic section for the descriptive and frequency testing and remaining items will be based on 5 point Likert scale. Questionnaires were distributed among telecom employees of internet service providers and end users. Data was collected from five internet service providers located in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. We have found few alarming situations while collecting data from respondents, in which customers had unsatisfied particular service provider many times but they time he remains unable to get the response and they use to give him another which creates confusion for the customers.

3.5 Research Instrument

The research instruments were divided into two parts. The first section constituted of eighteen items adapted from different studies. The first four items for perceived commitments due to advertising has been adopted by a study conducted by Brady, M. K., Knight, G. A., Cronin, J. J., Tomas, G., Hult, M., and Keillor, B. D. (2005) and Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., and Parasuraman, A. (1996). Next three items for misleading and decption. Last 7 items were taken for word of mouth from a study conducted by Brown, T. J., Barry, T. E., Dacin, P. A., and Gunst, R. F. (2005). This measure is commonly used and well researched with good reliability and validity reported however the perceived service commitment questions were incorporated from the study conducted by Ažman, S., and Gomišček, B. (2014).The second part dealt with demographics of the internet users responses that included their gender, age, their marital status and since how much time they are working for the organization that were visited for the purpose of data collection for this specific study. Furthermore the items adopted to measure the perceived service commitment, turnaround time or response time, word of mouth and its impact on customer satisfaction. The items for the measurement of perceived service commitment have been adapted from the research study conducted by Brady, M. K., Knight, G. A., Cronin, J. J., Tomas, G., Hult, M., and Keillor, B. D. (2005) and Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., and Parasuraman, A. (1996).

3.6 Research Setting

Study settings used for this research is non-contrived or natural, with no researcher interference. The approach used in this study is non-probability sampling and the nature of the study is cross sectional. The researcher could go for the longitudinal approach but has limited the approach due to the researcher convenience and time availability. Respondents were asked to fill questionnaires, who were employees of different levels in a non-contrived, non-manipulative setting. Respondents were requested to fill the questionnaire without using any bias approach.

3.7 Instrument Scale

The questionnaire was built using a mixed blend of scales like dichotomous, category and Likert scales. This mixture has made it less monotonous for the students while filling, hence also generating more reliable responses. The questions were easily comprehendible; the scales were used according to the nature of the questions being asked. For any incomprehension or vague understanding of the customers, the researcher was available to explain marketing terms. Technical terms were avoided in the questionnaire. 5-point Likert scales were used in the research. For measuring in – store promotions, moods (positive and negative emotional state) and the impulsive buying behaviour it were developed as starting from value 1 representing Strongly Disagree to value 5 representing Strongly Agree.

Table 1: Questionnaire Likert Scale Anchor for External Stimulus, Consumer Involvement and Purchase Behaviour

3.8 Variable Measurement

This study is more focused on exploring the relationship of Misleading & deceptive advertising on customer buying behaviour and stereotyping impact on customer satisfaction of the respondent with mediating effect of word of mouth faced when they use advertiser using unethical ads.

3.9 Time Horizon

The time period that has been set for this specific study is that of 4 months (one semester period).

3.10 Population

The research is carried out in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The target population of this study includes all levels of customers. Furthermore the target sample was also made sure they understand the impact of advertising on societal and cultural prospective. We have choose 600 sample size of respondent to measure the buying behavior or customer purchase intention.

Table 2: Population Sample

Figure 2: Population Sample

3.11 Sample and Sample Size

The questionnaires were distributed among the 600 respondent on twin city Rawalpindi & Islamabad.

3.12 Sampling Techniques

The data has been collected on non-probability sampling technique from Rawalpindi and Islamabad since it was defined that only the ones who had a customer premises unethical advertising were the respondents of the survey. This study is based on the responses of customers therefore other than the customers of services; no one else has been included in the survey.

3.13 Type of Analysis

The software appropriate for testing and analyzing the gathered data was interpreted through SPSS 20.0 which is latest and available for use. The relationship of the variables was tested through regression, correlation and other descriptive analysis. Whereas the data collecting tools was also checked for reliability and validity and that also with the help of SPSS.

This specific study is a cross sectional and hypotheses testing study conducted to explore the relationship between perceived service commitments, turnaround time and customer satisfaction. The significance of the relationship has been studied on the survey based primary data. It will also examine the word of mouth as a mediating variable on perceived service commitments, turnaround time and customer satisfaction. The study will be cross sectional and data will be gathered at one point of time.

4. Data Analysis

Initially 30 questionnaires were distributed as pilot testing to know the reliability between the variables. Respondents were requested to give bias free opinion and will not left any question and fill all questions properly.

Table 3: Scale Measurement (N=600)

The reliability result of pilot test’s for the variables are greater than alpha 0.60 which is fair reliability result and acceptable. So, this allowed the researcher to use the questionnaire to conduct the research based on these reliability results. unethical advertising, misleading advertisements

4.1 Results Interpretation

To test the reliability Cronbach’s alpha is used to determine the internal consistencies (Saunders et al., 2003). The value of Cronbach’s alpha coefficients greater than 0.7 is acceptable means items are measuring the same attributes and the items are reliable (Nunnally, 1978). Hinton (2004) has suggested four types of cut-off values vary from excellent to low reliability, which incorporate brilliant reliability (0.90 or more), high reliability (0.70-0.90), direct reliability (0.50-0.70) and low reliability (0.50 and beneath). Overall reliability of pilot survey is 0.900 which shows brilliant reliability means on the basis of this pilot survey research can be conducted.

Additionally, the dependability for poor product performance and customer dissatisfaction the alpha was 0.878 and 0.786. The Cronbach’s alpha was same as customer dissatisfaction and inadequate organizational commitment. The alpha was dropped in the middle of 0.801 to 0.952. Also, for the intention to turn over the alpha is 0.712 and work life conflict the alpha is 0.843 which categories in good reliability.

4.2. Demographics

Table 4: Demographics

Looks complicated, but the important change is to divide by N-1 (instead of N ) when calculating a Sample Variance.

Figure 3: Demographics

4.2.1 Respondent’s Profile

For this research study we had targeted the all levels of customers like Student, Business man, professional.

4.2.2 Demographical Statistics

This table explains the respondent’s frequencies with respect to the percentages.

4.2.3 Descriptive Analysis

The descriptive analysis of the respondents was on the basis of management practices i.e. misleading information, deception, stereotyping and their impact on customer purchase intention. It can be observed that the mean value of misleading information is 3.80, inadequate organizational commitment is 3.56, stereotyping impact is 4.59, and customer purchase intention is 4.80 and mean values of purchase intentions and advertising conflict is 3.32 and 2.78. The standard deviation for all variables varies from 0.57 to 1.18.

4.2.5 Correlation Analysis

The Pearson correlation is used to determine the relationship between all the variables, misleading information, deceptive advertising, stereotyping advertising and customer purchase intention. The results shown in the above table illustrate that the correlation between the Variables is not very high.

Table 5: Correlation Analysis

In above correlation matrix misleading information have a negative significant correlation with customer purchase intention (0.203) and stereotyping advertising (0.166) at 1 % and 5% level of significance respectively whereas a negative but insignificant correlation with customer satisfaction and a positive but insignificant correlation with inadequate organizational commitment has been observed. At the 5 % level of significance customer demotivation is significantly and negatively correlated with customer purchase intention (-0.168). The above results show that the correlation among variables vary from 0.009 to 0.668 which is not very strong, as a strong correlation would be greater than 0.90, hence there is no occurrence as per the ordinary least square (OLS) assumption (Blalock, 1963).

4.2.6 Regression Analysis

The regression analysis is performed between perceived service commitments and customer satisfaction as the dependent variable; customer satisfaction and Perceived service commitments as independent variables with a mediating effect of word of mouth. 120 respondent’s responses are analyzed in this research study.

Baron and Kenny (1986) three steps model has applied for testing the mediation role of word of mouth between service commitments and customer satisfaction. According to Preacher and Hayes (2004) variable (M) is considered a mediator if it fulfills the following three conditions:

• X significantly predicts M i.e. (a ≠ 0 in Equation 1);
• X significantly predicts Y i.e. (c ≠ 0 in Equation 2); and
• M significantly predicts Y controlling for X i.e. (b ≠ 0 in Equation 3).

The graphical representation of these step are shown in Figure. So to test H9 which states that the relationship between PSC and CS is mediated by WOM we used the three step method as shown in table.

Panel A: Illustration of Total Effect of X on Y

Panel B: Illustration of Mediated Effect of X on Y

The R-squared of regression is the fraction of the variation independent variable that is accounted for or predicted by the independent variables. The P-value is the probability of how confident a result can be that each individual variable has some correlation and association with the dependent variable, According to Pallant (2001), beta coefficient is significant if the p-value is less than 0.05. The beta coefficient for each independent variable gives the size of the effect that variable is having on the dependent variable, and the sign of the coefficient (positive or negative) gives the direction of the effect.

Table 6:  Misleading information and Deception

Note: MI and D=Misleading information and deception; WOM=Word of Mouth, CPI= Customer Purchase Intention. *P< .05, **p < .01, ***p<.001

The regression test was run to check the relationship of the variables. Firstly MI was regressed on customer satisfaction. The above table provides the values of R and other values are R 2. The R value indicates the simple correlation. The R 2 value explains that how much the total variation in the customer satisfaction can be explained by perceived service commitment. Here R 2 value is 0.42 which means that 42% of the impulsive buying decisions can be explained by the perceived service commitment. This result also shows the importance perceived service commitment that it has 42 percent of customer satisfaction is dependent how customer thinks about service to be delivered.

F value show the model fitness which is 87.9 in this model which mean that model is fit. T value is 9.38 which means that SEC have a positively and significantly impact the impulsive buying.

The beta value is measures in the units of standard deviation. That explains one unit change of standard deviation will result in percentage change in dependent variable. That means the higher the value of beta is the higher impact will be on dependent variable. In case of perceived service commitment on customer satisfaction it means that one unit change in standard deviation will bring 0.63 changes in customer purchase intention. This beta value suggests that one unit change in perceived service commitment will highly affect the customer buying behaviour.

F value show the model fitness which is 63.520 in this model which mean that model is fit. T value is 7.9 which means that PSC have a positively and significantly impact the customer satisfaction.

In case of perceived service commitment on word of mouth it means that one unit change in standard deviation will bring 0.48 changes in customer satisfaction. This beta value suggest that one unit change in perceived service commitment will highly effect the world of mouth of customers create after obtaining the service.

In third step world of mouth is regressed with customer satisfaction. The above table provides the values of R and other values are R 2. The R value indicates the simple correlation. R 2 value is 0.306 which means that 30% of the customer satisfaction is explained in this study with word of mouth customers create in market. This result also shows the importance of word of mouth. That it has 3o percent of customer satisfaction in this study.

F value show the model fitness which is 51.91 in this model which mean that model is fit. T value is 7.205 which means that word of mouth have a positively and significantly impact the customer satisfaction.

In case of word of mouth impact on customer satisfaction means that one unit change in standard deviation will bring 0.64% change in customer satisfaction. This beta value suggest that one unit change in word of mouth created by the customer will highly effect the customer satisfaction as people use service when they come to know something positive from their friends or family.

Table 7: Stereotyping Advertising

Note: SA=stereotyping advertising, WOM=Word of Mouth, CPI= Customer Purchase intention. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p<.001

The regression test was run to check the relationship of the variables. Firstly stereotyping was regressed on customer purchase intention. The above table provides the values of R and other values are R 2. The R value indicates the simple correlation. The R 2 value explains that how much the total variation in the customer satisfaction can be explained by the stereotyping impact. Here R 2 value is 0.63 which means that 63% of the impulsive buying decisions can be explained by the perceived service commitment. F value show the model fitness which is 203.8 in this model which mean that model is fit. T value is 14.2 which means that impact have a negatively and significantly impact on the customer satisfaction. Beta value of change is 0.715. That means if there is on unit change in standard deviation of time can bring 715 percent change in customer purchase intention. unethical advertising, misleading advertisements

In second step SA is regressed with word of mouth. The above table provides the values of R and other values are R 2. The R value indicates the simple correlation. R 2 value is 0.35 which means that 35% of the customer satisfaction can be explained by SA impact.

F value show the model fitness of the model which is 65.47 in this model which mean that model is fit. T value is 8.09 which means that word of mouth is negatively and significantly impact the customer purchase intention.

In case of word of mouth it means that one unit change in standard deviation will bring 0.45 changes in customer satisfaction. This beta value suggest that one unit change in turnaround time will highly effect the world of mouth of customers create after obtaining the service.

SA and word of mouth collectively taken as independent variable and regressed on customer satisfaction. R 2 value is 0.64 which means that 64% of the customer satisfaction is explained in this study with word of mouth customers create in market and turnaround time. Both these variables collectively have positive impact on customer satisfaction. unethical advertising, misleading advertisements

Beta value of word of mouth is 0.14 and value of word of mouth is 0.14. That means if there is on unit change in standard deviation of these variables that will bring 65% and 14% change in customer satisfaction respectively.

4.3 Verifiability

The proposed method obliges that the purportedly deceptive case/conviction be evidently genuine or false. This gets to be problematical when the convictions are evaluative and subjective as opposed to real. Is a cigarette promotion’s implied case that the smoker will seem more advanced clearly false? A basic yes or no answer is impractical. Albeit numerous individuals would concur that the essential result of cigarette smoking is the danger of lung disease, numerous adolescent young ladies see cigarettes as truly giving a modern

4.3.1 Creating the Correction

For a few advertisements a redress may be conceivable in principle just. Consider a TV commercial for a wellbeing related, however not therapeutic, item, for example, a breakfast grain without concoction added substances. The sponsor may misleadingly suggest a therapeutic claim by dressing the representative in a white protective outer layer or setting the testimonial in a healing facility. Amendment of such a commercial is straight forward, change the laboratory garment and clinic setting for run of the mill nonmedical partners. Yet, imagine a scenario where the representative is a performing artist who is firmly related to his part as a doctor in a film or TV arrangement.

5. Conclusion

Based on the literature on ethics and advertising, it is evident that the current research on advertising ethics are focused on issues such as deceptive advertising, subliminal advertising, sex, age and gender manipulation, celebrity endorsement, industry regulation and self-regulation, advertising to children and a few studies on practitioners and advertising stakeholders.

There are relatively few studies focusing on the theological aspect of advertising ethics such as the Christianity views on advertising ethics which is evident through the article written by Foley that focuses only on benefits and harms of advertising. The author believes that the area of theological approaches to advertising ethics is a new area to venture into and in need of a thorough study.

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• Brady, M. K., Knight, G. A., Cronin, J. J., Tomas, G., Hult, M., and Keillor, B. D. (2005). Removing the contextual lens: A multinational, multi-setting comparison of service evaluation models. Journal of Retailing, 81(3), 215-230. Crossref
• Brown, T. J., Barry, T. E., Dacin, P. A., and Gunst, R. F. (2005). Spreading the word: Investigating antecedents of consumers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33(2), 123-138. Crossref

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Model Essay for IELTS - Advertising

This essay for IELTS is on the subject of  advertising .

There are various types of questions you can get in the IELTS writing test and you'll see samples of them all over the following pages, but this one is an  agree / disagree  essay.

In these types of essays, you are presented with one opinion. Take a look at the opinion here in the question:

Some of the methods used in advertising are unethical and unacceptable in today’s society.

To what extent do you agree with this view?

So your options are:

In the answer below, the writer agrees 100% with the opinion.

As you can see, the writers opinion is made clear in the thesis statement (the last sentence of the introduction).

Model Essay for IELTS

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Essay for IELTS Model Answer

The world that we live in today is dominated by advertising. Adverts are on television, on the World Wide Web, in the street and even on our mobile phones. However, many of the strategies used to sell a product or service can be considered immoral or unacceptable.

To begin with, the fact that we cannot escape from advertising is a significant cause for complaint. Constant images and signs wherever we look can be very intrusive and irritating at times. Take for example advertising on the mobile phone. With the latest technology mobile companies are now able to send advertising messages via SMS to consumers' phones whenever they choose. Although we expect adverts in numerous situations, it now seems that there are very few places we can actually avoid them.

A further aspect of advertising that I would consider unethical is the way that it encourages people to buy products they may not need or cannot afford. Children and young people in particular are influenced by adverts showing the latest toys, clothing or music and this can put enormous pressure on the parents to buy these products.

In addition, the advertising of tobacco products and alcohol has long been a controversial issue, but cigarette adverts have only recently been banned in many countries. It is quite possible that alcohol adverts encourage excessive consumption and underage drinking, yet restrictions have not been placed on this type of advertising in the same way as smoking. 

It is certainly true to say that advertising is an everyday feature of our lives. Therefore, people are constantly being encouraged to buy products or services that might be too expensive, unnecessary or even unhealthy. In conclusion, many aspects of advertising do appear to be morally wrong and are not acceptable in today's society.

(296 words)

This essay for IELTS is well organized as there are five clear paragraphs, each containing ideas that are relevant, well expressed, and related to the topic. 

Focusing on the language and structures in particular, the essay starts with an appropriate introductory sentence. Linking words are used accurately ( However, In addition, Therefore ).

Phrases that signal opinions are evident ( A further aspect of advertising that I would consider unethical . ..) backed up by reasons (... encourages people to buy products they may not need or cannot afford ) and examples ( Children and young people in particular, are influenced by adverts ).

In general, many other useful phrases are used, indicating a good control of language ( It is quite possible ...  Many people consider . ..  It is certainly true to say .. .).

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The Top 8 Most Recent Controversial Ads. Unethical Ads Examples

October 10th, 2020

Have you ever seen a controversial, unethical ad that has left you scratching your head? Well, you’re not the only one.

Advertising can often be very hit or miss depending on the target audience and the marketing team in charge. Sometimes marketing departments can hit the nail on the head and deliver an incredible marketing campaign to impress their client and boost sales.

Other times, marketing departments can get it completely wrong and produce terrible, offensive ads that cause a lot of controversies, often resulting in a boycott and loss of sales.

Over the decades, there have been multiple examples of companies delivering terrible campaigns that have been talked about for all the wrong reasons. These whoopsies can affect any company no matter how big or small and have lasting impressions despite damage control.

To give you an idea of terrible ad campaigns that have caused a lot of controversies, we’re taking a look at some of the most controversial commercials and unethical ads with examples.

In no particular order, here are the top most controversial ads from the past decade, including some that worked!

Protein World – Beach Body Ready

The ad: Starting off our list is this beach body ad campaign by health supplement supplier Protein World. Released in 2015 across London and New York billboards, the offensive ad pictured a bikini-clad girl with the slogan “Are you beach body ready?”

The idea was to promote their supplements to users who wanted the perfect beach body for summer. However, the ad quickly received plenty of backlash via social media and even resulted in many passersby vandalizing and writing over the ad .

Why it’s an unethical ad: The problem with this ad campaign was the fact that is promoted “body shaming” and an unhealthy body image. Many feminist groups noted that the wording of the ad insinuates that the body in the picture is the only “acceptable” beach body. This means that any other body type not like the one in the picture is “unready”.

Despite the backlash from the public the ad received a lot of publicity and press coverage. Protein World went on to make a reported £1 million profit from the £250,000 they spent on the advertising campaign. Although it caused a lot of controversy around the world, it somehow still managed to boost the company’s sales.

Hopefully, in their future advertising they’ll be able to get the same success without having their commercials recognised as ‘sexist ads’.

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Bud Light – #upforwhatever

The ad: The ad in question, (that you can watch above) looks pretty harmless and normal as far as commercials go. A random guy gets asked to do something, and he goes along with it since he’s “up for whatever.”

In a series of events (and short ads) he ends up playing table tennis with Arnold Schwarzenegger at a OneRepublic concert (like you do). No violence, no swearing, no nudity. What could possibly be controversial about this ad?

Why it’s an unethical ad : If you’ve watched the commercial above, then it might not seem controversial, but it wasn’t the ad aired on TV itself that was the problem. Instead, it was the overall premise of the ad campaign, especially with the hashtag #upforwhatever.

The printed messages on the beers themselves actually said “the perfect beer for removing no from your vocabulary for the night.”

Considering the role alcohol frequently plays in rape cases, it definitely wasn’t the best idea to promote that kind of message on the side of their beers.

The ad received a lot of backlash from customers who said the campaign “encouraged and promoted rape” by printing those messages on their bottles. In the end, Bud Light apologized and pulled the entire campaign. Hopefully next time they’ll think twice about what their campaigns are telling customers to do.

Benetton Group – Unhate Campaign

The ad: Consider the previous controversial ads we’ve had on this list, this one probably stands out as the most offensive. The campaign features a range of world leaders kissing, including the likes of Obama, Merkel, and Sarkozy. According to the company behind the ad, the theme focuses on the kiss as it’s a universal symbol of love.

The controversial ad ran across many countries on large billboards during its 2011 launch which as you can imagine caused a lot of raised eyebrows. This wasn’t the first time the group had launched controversial ads before, in fact, their previous ads showed a priest and nun kissing .

Why it’s an unethical ad : Controversy for this ad campaign arose in many different ways. The first was the use of world leaders without their consent. In fact, one of the ads features Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam which was quickly removed after being condemned by the Vatican. The ads were met with so much backlash that some people started to tear the ads down themselves. Despite the backlash, Benetton never withdrew or apologized for the campaign and even went on to win the prestigious Cannes ad festival award .

Pepsi – Live For Now

The ad: Pepsi is known for its high-budget ads which usually feature famous faces such as Lionel Messi, Beyonce, Pink, Michael Jackson, and Beckham to name a few. This Pepsi ad was no different and featured celebrity fashion icon, Kendall Jenner. Released in 2017, the ad (which you can watch above) shows Kendall joining a protest outside after removing her black wig and makeup.

She then proceeds to give a can of Pepsi to a police officer during a stand-off who then smiles and the crowd cheers. Kendall Jenner has saved the day, all thanks to Pepsi!

Why it’s an unethical ad : During the time the advert was released, there were many protests and riots taking place in America over the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. The ad took a lot of “inspiration” from these protests and fundamentally undermined the whole point of the protests. In addition to this, the ad also received a lot of criticism for how Pepsi was responsible for “saving the day.”

Within 24 hours of releasing the ad, Pepsi faced a lot of criticism from online users over the ad and had to release an official statement while also pulling the ad.

Nivea – White Is Purity

The ad: Nivea is a German skincare brand that is known for manufacturing antiperspirants, face creams, and plenty of other cosmetics. To promote one of their new invisible antiperspirants, Nivea decided to use the tagline “white is purity” on their social media campaign. The ad featured a woman wearing a white top while looking out the window with the slogan in bold blue letters.

This ad was just one of a number of other ads from the same campaign to promote their new product.

Why it’s an unethical ad : As you can probably see from the advert above, the choice of words for this campaign was very poorly chosen. To make things worse, they specifically aimed the campaign at people in the Middle East which caused many people to call the advert racist.

In addition to this, many right-wing groups started to promote the advert with some going as far as saying Nivea was the official alt-right antiperspirant. Eventually, Nivea released a statement about the controversial ads and immediately withdrew them after realizing the wording and context caused offense to many viewers.

Dove – Lotion Ad

The ad: Similar to Nivea, Dove is a popular skincare brand that targets numerous countries around the world with their moisturizers, deodorants and hair care products. In 2017, Dove released a social media ad on their Facebook page of a black woman “transforming” into a white woman.

The advert showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman underneath after using Dove’s body lotion. As you can probably tell, there are many things wrong with this advert.

Why it’s an unethical ad : The controversy caused by the advert is as clear as day. Not only is the advert racist, but it’s also insulting to viewers.

The campaign was instantly removed from Facebook while the owners of the brand Unilever, released a statement apologizing for the advert. The scary thing about this advert is that it must have been approved at some point during the marketing process, which makes it worrying that nobody thought it would cause offense.

This also wasn’t the first time Dove received backlash over their ads. In 2011 they came under fire for a similar image showing the transition of a black woman to a white woman after using their lotion.

Tweets from users showed that people don’t just forget about these types of ads overnight. A bad ad campaign can leave you with a negative reputation for years.

Recent Controversial Ads 2021

2020 might be over, but there are still some ads we can’t seem to get out of our heads. Not because they were good, but the complete opposite. Maybe you saw some articles in the news regarding these ads or perhaps this is your first time seeing them.

Whatever the case, these ads caused a lot of controversy in 2018 for different reasons. Here’s why.

LUSH – #spycops

The ad: LUSH is a UK based handmade cosmetics manufacturer that has stores all across the UK and USA. In 2018 LUSH released its spy cops campaign across all their UK stores which raised many eyebrows. In addition to running the advert across all of their UK shops, they also produced several online articles explaining the issue.

The campaign focused on “spy cops” or undercover police who infiltrate political groups and form relationships in order to gather and collect data on subjects.

There have been many stories of police offers having sexual relations with these campaigners all while hiding the truth from their real families. The ad was basically a whistleblowing campaign to raise awareness of the police’s tactics and the devastation it brings to families and children.

Why it’s an unethical ad : The main issue with this campaign is that it came across as very anti-police to most of the general public. In fact, there were reports of people complaining and becoming very aggressive in the stores, resulting in LUSH having to call the police. Due to the negative reception of the ads, LUSH ended up pulling them and releasing an official statement on their website.

Nike’s Ad – Colin Kaepernick

The ad: Nike is undoubtedly one of the biggest companies when it comes to sportswear and sports brands. Known for its sports footwear, clothes and accessories, Nike regularly invests in multi-million-dollar ad campaigns featuring the likes of famous sports athletes.

In 2018 Nike launched an advert featuring the American quarterback Colin Kaepernick who at the time was known for protesting over the American national anthem during football games.

The ad was plastered on billboards all over America with the tagline “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything”. The line being a nod to Kaepernick’s previous actions of not standing for the national anthem in protest over the treatment of ethnic minorities.

Why it’s an unethical ad : After Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem, many viewers became angry at him and viewed him as anti-American. The fact that Nike was using him in their ads made many people believe Nike was also anti-American. This sparked a lot of controversies online with many social media users posting pictures of themselves destroying Nike products, along with the hashtag #JustBurnIt.

However, despite the online backlash over the campaign and casting of Kaepernick, Nike reportedly made over $6 billion in sales and saw online sales grow by 31%.

Now you’ve seen the most controversial ads, be sure to check out the best guerrilla marketing campaign examples that will make you rethink your current marketing campaigns.

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Unethical advertising - Essay Example

• Subject: Media
• Type: Essay
• Level: Masters
• Pages: 8 (2000 words)
• Downloads: 2
• Author: izaiahschmeler

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Ethical dilemma in media, commercials of saunabelt, the lowest moment in advertising, business ethics : fraud of the century, research and discuss the following: what makes advertising ethical or unethical cite specific examples, how advertising is influenced by ethics, the effect of unethical advertising on society and the environment, ethics and advertising.

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