What Is the Difference Between Unethical and Ethical Advertising?

What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public. ~Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1964

Advertisers have certainly found a niche in children; sell a pair of overpriced shoes by having Bratz or super hero logo on it. Or perhaps this yummy delicious cereal that has no nutritional value, but a very cute cartoon character to promote it. Our children are subjected to these constantly, if not on television, it is on the radio and in their video games. We as parents need to stand strong and tell our children NO and teach them that some things are not worth the hype. Even though companies profit from children persuading parents to buy what they do not need, advertising to children has a real downside it can cause inappropriate sexuality, obesity, and unhealthy spending behaviors.

Advertising takes advantage of individual uncertainty, creates artificial needs and offers fake results. It promotes unhappiness that leads to spending. Children have become exposed to this sort of treatment. Young children are more and more the aim of advertising and marketing due to the money they spend themselves, and the sway they have on their parents spending. It also instills a sense of brand loyalty that will follow them throughout the duration of their lives.

Over 57 million school age children and teenagers who watch on average 25,000 to 40,000 television advertisements a year. Companies spend $15-17 billion a year, in which $4 billion of that is spent on fast food advertising. The amount they spend they get back in no time, as teens will spend nearly $160 billion, children, up to 11 spend close to $18 billion and those that are 8-12 use the "nag factor" to get their parents to spend upwards of $30 billion a year. (Shah, 2010)

Even though companies profit from children persuading parents to buy what they do not need, advertising also causes inappropriate sexuality. From the start, girls are trained by advertisers to be feminine, sweet, nurturing, and-as they get slightly older-sexy. This is drilled into their psyche at such young ages that it is who they become.

After the pink stage which ends as early as around the age of 6, our girls are subjected to thong underwear, padded bras and bikinis. Sex is used in commercials to sell everything from perfume to shampoo to shoes. Research shows that a teenagers' exposure to sexual content in the media may be the cause for the early start of sexual interaction. (Lamb, & Mikel Brown, 2006)

American advertising also has the tendency to use female models that are anorexic in appearance, which may be a factor to young girls feeling that their body is not "perfect" and can cause them to eat incorrectly.

They are not just selling sex at inappropriate ages, but they are promoting unhealthy eating habits among all children. An estimated $15 billion has been spent by various companies offering fast food, sugary cereals and junk food to kids with much of this appearing on channels aimed at children, such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Where healthy foods are advertised less than 3% of the time; when was the last time you saw a commercial for broccoli. Increasingly, fast food companies are using toy tie-ins with major children's motion pictures to try to attract young people. Some studies have shown that young children ask for more junk food after watching commercials.

Two reasons that link television viewing of young children with the