ETHICS AND SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY IN MARKETING - AN EXAMINATION OF THEETHICAL EVALUATION OF ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

Controversies over the ethical implications of advertising have existe d since its creation. The purpose of this research is to examine the e thical judgments of advertising and marketing practitioners with an ex perimental design that manipulates three clinical variables qi interes t. individual autonomy, consumer sovereignty, and the nature of the pr oduct. Respondents generally rated ads targeted at individuals who are not autonomous (mature) as less ethical than ads targeted at those wh o are perceived as autonomous. Similarly, ads targeted at those with l ow sovereignty were perceived as less ethical than ads aimed at consum ers perceived to have high sovereignty. Finally, ads for harmful produ cts were perceived to be less ethical than ads for nonharmful products . Thus, all three variables play a significant role in terms of the et hical judgments of ads. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.