084845_ethics and social responsibility
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Ethics and Social Responsibility in
Marketing: An Examination of the Ethical
Evaluation of Advertising StrategiesSaviour L. S. NwachukwuSOUTHERN UNIVERSITY AND A & M COLLEGE
Scott . Vit!""# r.UNIVERSITY O$ MISSISSI%%I
$a! '. Gi"(!rtUNIVERSITY O$ MISSISSI%%I
a)!* H. +ar,!*UNIVERSITY O$ MISSISSI%%I
Controversies over the ethical implications of advertising have existed
since its creation. The purpose of this research is to examine the ethical
judgments of advertising and marketing practitioners ith an experimental
design that manipulates three critical variables of interest: individual
autonomy, consumer sovereignty, and the nature of the product. Respon-
dents generally rated ads targeted at individuals who are not autonomous
(mature) as less ethical than ads targeted at those who are perceived as
autonomous. imilarly, ads targeted at those with low sovereignty were
perceived as less ethical than ads aimed at consumers perceived to have
high sovereignty. !inally, ads for harmful products were perceived to be
less ethical than ads for nonharmful products! Thus" all three variables
play a significant role in terms of the ethical "udgments of ads. # $%S&
RES '(()! *(!'+) ,''-! . '(() Elsevier cience #nc.
cholars and practitioners have been concerned about
ethical perceptions of business practices since selling
and persuasion became major tools of the exchange
process! %nintended ethical outcomes of marketing and adver,
tising may include the encouragement of unsafe behavior"
confused assessment of products" reinforcement of inaccurate
stereotypes" and cynicism /0ollay" '(-12! $aumhart /'(1'2
identified several unethical practices of concern to business
executives! These included price discrimination" unfair credit
practices" and dishonest adver tising! Although the set of un,
A--r!** corr!*o,-!,c! to Dr. Scott . Vit!""# r.# D!art)!,t o/ Ma,a0!1)!,t a,- Mark!ti,0# Schoo" o/ +u*i,!** A-)i,i*tratio,# U,iv!r*it o/ Mi**i*1*ii# U,iv!r*it# MS 23455.
our,a" o/ +u*i,!** R!*!arch 26# 7851773 97665: ; 7665 E"*!vi!r Sci!,c! I,c.4iecker" and 8honko" '((+2! 0romo,
tional activities for unholesome products such as cigarettes
/Assael" '((+5 >oeppel" '((+5 0ollay" ?ee" and 8arter,3hit,
ney" '((95 Schlossberg" '((+2" for high,priced products di,
rected toard inner city children /$ron" '((+2" and for
inappropriate products in less developed countries /Mc8o,
mas" @ookes" and Taucher" '(-65 0ost" '(-62 all indicate a
need for greater knoledge of ethical practices and judgments!
The level of knoledge and sophistication of target markets"
the autonomy of individuals exposed to advertising" and the
nature of the product being advertised are basic issues in need
of research! @rameorks for the examination of these factors
have been proposed by some scholars /e!g!" ?eiser" '()(5
ISSN 87=31>[email protected]%"" 642964:887=41=