Advertising was first used in a news paper in June 1836; it was created to give knowledge to readers about a product and its effect, uses, and how it is helpful in daily life. However advertising these days is quite different then what it used to be, for example for beauty products now, instead of just getting to know about the product and its uses, we are shown celebrities or paid actors with exceptionally good looks or traits who at times simply say that they use the product or go as far as dedicating their lives success to a simple everyday product, which at times causes people’s expectations to be set incredibly high only to be let down when the product turns out not to be as good as it was claimed to be and becomes false or negative or unethical advertising. Unethical advertising has many forms as well as effects on people who view them, as many groups of people may find unethical advertising to be offensive or disturbing or inappropriate depending on their gender, race, religion, political view etc. This makes it understandable that many people would ask for penalties to be placed on people who would make such unethical advertisement, especially when these advertisements are found to be misleading or unrelated to the product that they are supposed to be giving information about. However most reasoning behind unethical advertising is humor, and by no means is meant to offend people. As humor lures people to the product being sold by the advertisement much more easily then facts about the product would. So at times its considered unnecessary to implement penalties over advertisement which was clearly meant as humor and not to offend, however a line must be drawn and limit must be kept to differentiate between an attempt at humor and an attempt to discriminate or offend a group of people, and should that line be crossed penalties become necessary to avoid future unethical advertisements which are designed to be misleading or stereotyping towards people of different qualities and groups.
References:
- http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ethical-limits-advertising-21938.html
- https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/the-issue-of-unethical-advertising-media-essay.php
- https://www.stacklaw.com.au/news/business-disputes/false-misleading-claims-advertising-marketing-can-cost-unwary/
