Socio Cultural Impacts on Ethical Advertisement

Advertising ethics affects the practice of our lives, and also the practice of business, in prominent ways. Advertising ethics concerns us all-academicians, ad agency personnel, advertisers, consumers, media personnel, and regulators-in one way or another.

Moreover, advertising has become a race for creating a unique, cutting-edge, and enticing way of passing on relevant information to customers to facilitate and positively influence their buying decisions. Specifically, TV advertising has long focused on ethical choices faced by news practitioners as they deal with conflicting pressures and goals. Recent scholarly attention to media ethics has focused mainly on case studies of TV advertisers’ actions regarding such issues as invasion of privacy, ef­fect of profit motive on advertisement content, and advertisers’ relationships to their sources

Research Objectives

Find the determinants that lead to unethical advertising

Identify various impacts of unethical advertising on the organization

Identify the social and cultural impacts of unethical advertising in particular

To understand the importance of ethical advertising for business

How ethical advertising is affected by the social and cultural values?

Impacts of unethical advertising on the children

Impacts of unethical advertising on the society and culture

Reasons why firms get involve in unethical advertising

To analyze the need of ethical advertising for business

Literature review

George M. Zinkhan (Sep1994) stated that buying behavior of consumers which is influenced by cultural and social factors include social class, family, demographics and geography. Culture is a combination of tangible factors and intangible values that articulate the lifestyle of a person. Social class is defined as the income group the individual belongs too which depends on the income earned, which determines buying behavior of a person. Reference group would usually include celebrities who endorse brands, members of the family and close friends etc. Family is totally different from the former ones because of the preferences, norms and values of a family in which the individual resides. Moreover the individuals buying decision is influenced by the ambience of his family and also values are grasped unconsciously in a particular family setting. Thus, the individual’s buying decision is collectively and unconsciously is influenced by the family. Demographics are specific details about a person which include gender, income, age etc. this also include the geographical location of a person which influences the buying behavior of a person. Factors which can affect a person’s decision making include climate, weather etc. These tangible and intangible factors affect the marketers in making ethical decisions about marketing.

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Bowie (2002) stated in his article that marketing ethics is subset of business ethics and deals with the application of moral standards marketing decisions, behaviors and also the institutions at large. Marketing ethics examine the moral issues that marketer’s faces in organizations. Important topics include advertising honesty and truthfulness, fairness in pricing, safety and liability and forthrightness in selling. During recent years positive developments in marketing ethics include recognition of the difference between normative, descriptive and analytical work in the field. Normative ethics deal with articulating and defending basic moral norms. Descriptive ethics deals with the scientific study of ethics conducted by social scientists while analytical marketing ethics include works that examine basic ethical marketing concepts and norms. Moreover there are five core virtues listed; integrity, fairness, trust, respect and empathy. These are relevant for marketing in a multi-cultural and multinational context. There are many different theories which were tested. Amongst them which received substantial attention is Kohlbergs theory of cognitive moral development (CMD).this study found out that marketing practitioners are similar to professional groups on the CMD scale and secondly highly educated female workers score highest on CMD and thirdly those marketers most advanced in moral reasoning also exhibit socially responsible attitudes and behavior. Marketers must accept moral responsibility for their strategies as well as for marketing efforts aimed at that segment.

Cecilia (April 1999) stated in his article that in western countries conflicts between ethical/moral and social/economic values are observed. Many professionals see themselves disoriented concerning the correct attitude to take when facing dynamic and diversified possibilities for their marketing strategies. The explanatory study was conducted titled ‘The Moral Themes in Advertising’ was conducted to know what actually the marketers think or what is their perception about the concept of ethics in their ethical performance, social responsibility in marketing and the standards and guidelines. This study was conducted through mailing questionnaires to 78 foreign countries. This questionnaire had 170 questions, most of them had to be rated 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest .The results were gathered and variance was analyzed. There were a lot of variations in the results of different countries. Some countries had more moral values and therefore were more ethical in their marketing strategies. The social uses do influence the human behavior, since they reflect and condition the values system of a society. The morality of these uses and means correspond to the dignity of the social and human nature. It justifies that advertisers and other marketing practitioners or professors throughout the world study a way of becoming more sensitive to the grave responsibility they assume, concerning their apparent alienation about ethical duties and obligations toward the citizens.

Fritzsche (November 1995) stated in his article that personal values significantly influence the decision making process of a person. The article studies the relationship that exists between personal values and ethical dimensions of decisions. There are numerous studies that show that that personal value plays an important role in influencing the behavior of marketing managers. Studies also suggest that managers should be screened out on the basis of their values while hiring. The basic definition of values is defined as “A value is a conception, explicit or implicit of the desirable that influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action”. Another definition states that “a value is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conducts or end state of existence”. Studies by numerous scholars suggest that behavior is a result of values and attitudes and that value provide a basis for the development of individual attitudes which lead to specific decision making. A personal value questionnaire was developed in England in which managers were asked to evaluate the performance of 66 values. This was measured on a success scale, a right scale and a pleasant scale, which showed a high variation in values of different people.

Becker(November 1990) states in this article that ethical behavior of marketing managers can be examined by their reactions and responses to a varied sequence of ethical dilemmas presented to them. These include coercion and control, conflict of interest, physical environment paternalism and personal integrity. To conduct this study the respondents were selected from a random sample of 593 marketing practitioners from American Marketing Association.Memebers who were listed were either consultants or academics were not included in the sample. Total of 124 questionnaires were received and processed. The results were evaluated on three broad categories which were the individual, the individual’s peer and the individual’s top management. However there were some limitations to this study because the response rate was very low. Secondly the data was based on statements of what the respondents. The managers responded to coercion and control dilemmas differently than they responded to conflict of interest problems. This response in turn differed from their response to personal integrity dilemmas. The paternalism response did not differ significantly from either the conflict of interest or the personal integrity response. Therefore care should be taken when interpreting past and future empirical studies of ethical behavior to avoid generalizing across categories of ethical problems.

Desmond (2004) stated in his article that regardless of argumentative concerns of marketing ethicists, a societal based morality continues to suffer because of marketing practices. This article in the light of ‘ethicist’ and ‘egoist’ elements of moral theory discovers the outcomes of marketing actions relative to the normative elements. ‘Ethicists’ are the scholars arguing that better moral outcomes can be reached via ‘the embodiment of the maxims of moral philosophy within management theory’. Whereas ‘egoists’ those who profess Adam Smith’s view that the pursuit of different forms of ‘self-interest’ will eventually lean towards the best, or least worst, of moral consequences in economic situations.

Ahmed (May 1996) in this paper examines the features, similarities and differences in advertising expressions and strategies. The study is on a cross cultural analysis which compared USA a high context culture with India a low context culture. A random sample of advertisements were chosen for this research, consumer products were selected which were from nationally circulated newspaper and magazines of each country. The study found out that there are substantial differences in the advertisements produced by the two countries and reflections of their cultural values could be seen in their advertising expressions. Moreover it was revealed that US advertisements were direct, distinctive in which sexual portrayals of women were used whereas in Indian ads indirect style was used with combined visuals and stereotypical portrayals of women were more frequently used compared to US ads. Furthermore it has been said that most of the cross cultural empirical studies that have been conducted to date compared either two or more Western industrialized countries or Western and Eastern industrialized countries. Other cross cultural analysis were also conducted which compared US with UK. Every analysis showed a different and varied result.

Hayman (September 1994) stated in his article that the practice of our lives and businesses is affected by advertising ethics in prominent ways. Advertising ethics concerns too many people which include consumers, academicians, ad agency personnel, advertisers, and media personnel somehow. Recent articles have scrutinized the ethicality of ads with exploitive appeals, persuasive appeals and stereotyped actors. Other articles studied the ethicality of ads for professional services, politicians or political causes and questionable products like cigarettes. Different tests were carried out which showed different results. Respondents said that they value funding constraints and concomitant reliance on convenience significantly more than other impediments. Moreover the use of dishonesty, advertisement for children, tobacco ads, use of stereotypes should also be avoided according to the respondent.

Buijzen (2003) in his article introduced a model on the unintended effects of advertising and conducted tests to test the validity of three hypothesis about the impact of advertising on materialism, parent – child conflict and unhappiness. It was observed that there was a moderate relationship between advertising and materialism and advertising and parent-child conflict however no significant relationship was found between unhappiness and advertising. Moreover it is stated that television advertisements aimed at children were a subject of concern in US and Europe in early 1970’s. Furthermore it is discussed that effects of advertising directed toward children are based on two paradigms; paradigm of empowered child and paradigm of vulnerable child. In paradigm of empowered child, children are viewed as skilled consumers critically processing commercial messages whereas in paradigm of vulnerable child assumes that children lack cognitive skills to protect themselves against advertising messages. It was also examined that children are more susceptible than adults to the seductive influence of commercials.

Robert Bartels (1997) stated in his article that he contributed the first comprehensive model for ethics in marketing. This conceptualization of the variables that influence marketing ethics decision making determine the logical basis for marketers to determine what is right or wrong. In this article a schematic plan for analyzing the variables inherent in the ethics of decision making; and provided a framework for social and personal ethics in marketing decisions. This model was successful in outlining variables that influence ethical decision making, including participants, cultural influencers, role expectations, and the complexity of ethical decision making.

Chapter 3: Methodology

This section outlines and elaborates on the research and how it was conducted. It covers the details of the research design, methodology for collecting the data, population, questionnaire development and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

The aim of the paper is to figure out how Socio cultural factors affect ethical advertising. The basic idea is to equip ourselves with additional research on the phenomenon of consumer response with respect to unethical advertisements; this makes the research a basic research. Since the objective is to find socio cultural factors affect ethical advertisements, this research was termed as descriptive and casual in nature.

3.2 Data Collection Method

Data can be collected from primary or secondary sources. A primary data refers to information collected firsthand by the researcher based on the variables of interest for the specific purpose of study. Whereas a secondary data refers to information collected from sources already existing. This research was based on primary data collection approach. Questionnaires were used for collecting data. Personally administered questionnaires were used. They were distributed to a total of 29 people of different ages, occupation and income. Once the questionnaires was filled they were collected from the respondent, the researcher was accompanying the respondent so that queries from respondent can be answered. The anonymity and confidentiality of the researcher and their responses was ensured and were analyzed at the aggregate level only.

Close ended questions were used in the questionnaire which helped the respondents to make quick decisions to choose among the several alternative before them (Sekaran, 2000). Such type of questionnaires also helps the researcher to code the information easily for subsequent analysis. Likert-style rating scale was used; it consists of subsequent options: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. Different statements were made in the questions and respondents were asked the degree as to what they agree or disagree upon.

3.3 Questionnaire Development

The layout of the questionnaire is very important to reduce the biases in the research (Sekaran, 2000); due to this the layout is kept simple and limited to 4 pages only. Questionnaire starts with an introduction of research.

The design of the questionnaire is attached in Appendix 2.

Theoretical framework

Operational Definitions

1) Industry Standards:

Industry standards are orderly and systematic formulation, adoption, or application of standards used in the industry. An industrial standard is a generally accepted requirement to be met for the attainment of a recurrent industrial objective. These standards would be evaluated through secondary data obtained from Internet.

2) Personal Conscience:

It explains the concomitant moral judgment that determines the morality of actions; it can be right, correct, doubtful or scrupulous. Data would be gauged by asking indirect questions from the respondents and their answers would reflect their conscience.

3) Company Policy:

Company policies are guidelines-statements (guide to plans & decision making) to facilitate predetermined objective on the mode and manner in the structural & functional aspects to achieve the objective formulated as plans at all levels of management in the business organization. Data related to company policy would be gathered by visiting Telecom companies like Telenor and Warid.

4) Moral values:

Moral values explain the standards of good and evil, which govern an individual’s behavior and choices. Every person has different morals and it is difficult to judge a person’s moral values therefore data for moral values would be gauged by asking indirect questions from the respondents and their answers would reflect their moral values.

5) Government laws and regulations:

Government is a system of social control which grants a particular group of society the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them. Laws and regulations are rules that order human activities and relations through systematic application of the force of politically organized society. Data would be gathered through Internet and Government publications.

6) Regulatory agencies:

Regulatory agencies are independent government bodies formed or mandated under the terms of a legislative act to ensure compliance with the provisions of the act, and in carrying out its purpose. Data related to regulatory agencies would be gathered from secondary data available on internet and government publications.

7) Religion:

Religion is defined as a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects. Religion is an important factor that affects advertisements. Data would be gathered through Questionnaires and focus groups.

8) Cultural values:

Cultural values are Commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable, etc., in a community or society. Data related to Cultural values would be gauged through Questionnaires and focus groups.

Hypotheses 1

Socio-Cultural factors have a significant/insignificant impact on ethical advertisement

Ho: Socio-Cultural factors have a significant impact on ethical advertisement

H1: Socio-Cultural factors have an insignificant impact on ethical advertisement

Multiple Regressions – Q6

Dependent variable: Q6

Independent variables:

Q12

Q13

Q15

Q19

Standard

T

Parameter

Estimate

Error

Statistic

P-Value

CONSTANT

0.00863931

0.355308

0.024315

0.9808

Q12

0.391237

0.171878

2.27624

0.0320

Q13

0.321197

0.12931

2.48393

0.0204

Q15

0.0993521

0.179206

0.554402

0.5844

Q19

0.19747

0.0812598

2.43011

0.0229

Analysis of Variance

Source

Sum of Squares

Df

Mean Square

F-Ratio

P-Value

Model

7.96444

4

1.99111

44.66

0.0000

Residual

1.07004

24

0.044585

Total (Corr.)

9.03448

28

R-squared = 88.156 percent

R-squared (adjusted for d.f.) = 86.1821 percent

Standard Error of Est. = 0.211152

Mean absolute error = 0.127206

Durbin-Watson statistic = 2.18452 (P=0.6825)

Lag 1 residual autocorrelation = -0.0946458

The StatAdvisor

The output shows the results of fitting a multiple linear regression model to describe the relationship between Q6 and 4 independent variables. The equation of the fitted model is

Q6 = 0.00863931 + 0.391237*Q12 + 0.321197*Q13 + 0.0993521*Q15 + 0.19747*Q19

Since the P-value in the ANOVA table is less than 0.05, there is a statistically significant relationship between the variables at the 95.0% confidence level.

The R-Squared statistic indicates that the model as fitted explains 88.156% of the variability in Q6. The adjusted R-squared statistic, which is more suitable for comparing models with different numbers of independent variables, is 86.1821%. The standard error of the estimate shows the standard deviation of the residuals to be 0.211152. This value can be used to construct prediction limits for new observations by selecting the Reports option from the text menu. The mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.127206 is the average value of the residuals. The Durbin-Watson (DW) statistic tests the residuals to determine if there is any significant correlation based on the order in which they occur in your data file. Since the P-value is greater than 0.05, there is no indication of serial autocorrelation in the residuals at the 95.0% confidence level.

In determining whether the model can be simplified, notice that the highest P-value on the independent variables is 0.5844, belonging to Q15. Since the P-value is greater or equal to 0.05, that term is not statistically significant at the 95.0% or higher confidence level. Consequently, you should consider removing Q15 from the model.

Multiple Regression – Q6

Dependent variable: Q6

Independent variables:

Q12

Q13

Q19

Standard

T

Parameter

Estimate

Error

Statistic

P-Value

CONSTANT

0

0.350015

0

1.0000

Q12

0.453202

0.128754

3.5199

0.0017

Q13

0.369458

0.0942868

3.91845

0.0006

Q19

0.187192

0.0780131

2.39949

0.0242

Analysis of Variance

Source

Sum of Squares

Df

Mean Square

F-Ratio

P-Value

Model

7.95074

3

2.65025

61.14

0.0000

Residual

1.08374

25

0.0433498

Total (Corr.)

9.03448

28

R-squared = 88.0044 percent

R-squared (adjusted for d.f.) = 86.5649 percent

Standard Error of Est. = 0.208206

Mean absolute error = 0.123662

Durbin-Watson statistic = 2.1867 (P=0.6811)

Lag 1 residual autocorrelation = -0.0951858

The StatAdvisor

The output shows the results of fitting a multiple linear regression model to describe the relationship between Q6 and 3 independent variables. The equation of the fitted model is

Q6 = -6.99441E-15 + 0.453202*Q12 + 0.369458*Q13 + 0.187192*Q19

Since the P-value in the ANOVA table is less than 0.05, there is a statistically significant relationship between the variables at the 95.0% confidence level.

The R-Squared statistic indicates that the model as fitted explains 88.0044% of the variability in Q6. The adjusted R-squared statistic, which is more suitable for comparing models with different numbers of independent variables, is 86.5649%. The standard error of the estimate shows the standard deviation of the residuals to be 0.208206. This value can be used to construct prediction limits for new observations by selecting the Reports option from the text menu. The mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.123662 is the average value of the residuals. The Durbin-Watson (DW) statistic tests the residuals to determine if there is any significant correlation based on the order in which they occur in your data file. Since the P-value is greater than 0.05, there is no indication of serial autocorrelation in the residuals at the 95.0% confidence level.

In determining whether the model can be simplified, notice that the highest P-value on the independent variables is 0.0242, belonging to Q19. Since the P-value is less than 0.05, that term is statistically significant at the 95.0% confidence level. Consequently, you probably don’t want to remove any variables from the model.