ETHICS IN ADVERTISING - IDEOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS

This study investigates the perceptions of familiar advertising contro versies that are obtained from a diverse sample of 292 consumers. Topi cs from two broad categories of advertising practices are investigated : targeting practices and message strategies. For each topic, consumer perceptions are analyzed as a function of the participants' moral ide ologies of idealism and relativism, dimensions obtained from the Ethic s Position Questionnaire. Results show that consumers believe advertis ing often violates broad ethical norms. In addition, the degree to whi ch consumers judge advertising as ethical or unethical varies as a fun ction of their relativism and idealism.