Self- Regulation

Apeksha Noronha Roll no. 36
TYBMM Advertising

Dos and Don’ts for Advertisements Aimed At Cultural and Religious Minorities

Introduction

Advertising, in any form, contains within itself an element of persuasion. Advertising that is purely informative is often all that is needed to persuade a reader or listener to buy the product. Persuasion is not the result merely of using strong words and phrases to urge people to buy a product or accept an idea. Persuasion is a two-way process. In the case of advertising, it involves a recognition or belief on the part of the reader or listener that the advertised product will satisfy a need or desire. When a person is already clearly conscious of some need or want, and a product exists that will satisfy that need or want, it requires very little in the way of advertising to persuade the person to buy. Under such conditions, all an advertisement needs is an announcement of the product’s existence, its price and where it can be bought. When consumers are not conscious of specific needs o wants or when the qualities of a product are not clearly observable, it then becomes the task of advertising to interpret the hidden qualities of the product in terms of basic human desires.
Advertising is a powerful economic and social force. Consumers look to it for information in respect to products and services that might help in meeting their material needs and wants. Consumer actions are influenced by the character of advertisements that are distributed by the mass media. Because of the power and influence of advertising, it is vital to the welfare of society that high ethical standards guide the actions of advertising practitioners. High ethical standards are also vital to the long-run economic health of advertising itself. If advertising does not have the confidence of most consumers, it will lose it influence. If people grow to disbelieve a substantial percentage of the advertising messages that come to them, they will soon tend to reject most or all advertising. Advertising is a dynamic social forum where business interests, creativity, consumer needs and government regulation meet. The high visibility of advertising makes it particularly vulnerable to criticism. Another aspect is that people feel that advertising plays the role of the “hidden persuader” and that consumers are its victims as they are manipulated to buy products they neither need nor can afford. Findings indicate that while ad executives are fed up with bad ads produced by their trade, consumers do not cars much one way or the other, because of the overdrive of advertising products. However, it is worthwhile to be aware of the social issues facing advertising, as social responsibility requires a balance between public welfare and freedom of speech.

Inspite of regulation, every issue is not covered by a clear, written rule. Many issues are left to the discretion of the advertiser and these decisions may be based on a variety of considerations: objective of the ad campaign, attitudes of target audience and the legal precedent. By its very nature, advertising tries to persuade the audience that they need new products and have to buy it. However, critics want advertising to provide information and stop there. Beyond the easily ascertainable claims in an advertising message, are matters of perception. Will buying an expensive perfume make me more attractive? Such messages may be implied by the situations pictured in the ads. Inspite of being aware that these messages will not essentially change our lifestyle, advertising critics raise concern when these messages are directed to particular groups with limited experiences. Some critics believe that advertising is a symbol of our society’s pre-occupation with accumulation of material goods. We are constantly being exposed to goods that are bigger, better, changing, newer etc. and into thinking we must have these products. Advertisers can seek help in making decisions about questionable situations with the help of a code of ethics that help provide general guidance. When advertising decisions are not covered by a code, rule or regulation, someone must make an ethical decision. This person must weigh the pros and cons and make a value judgement about an unfamiliar situation. These decisions are complex because there exists no clear consensus about what is ethical behaviour. The complexity of ethical issues requires us to make a conscious effort to deal with each situation.

Ethical Issues in Advertising

Puffery: it literally means puffing up a product or exaggerating its qualities. Since this does not fall under the legal purview, it has become an ethical issue. Almost every product is puffed up. Terms like ‘the best’ or ‘the greatest’ were sales talk. Everyone knows that “wonder bread” is not really a wonder and “the greatest show on earth” is not what everyone considers the greatest. Puffery, therefore, was a form of opinion statement, and not regulated. In fact, “puffery defense” was a loophole through which many deceptive claims fell. Puffery becomes a legal issue when you drag your competitor into it. For example, Papa Joe’s pizza claimed to deliver their pizzas faster than Pizza Hut. Apart from giving rise to deceptive advertising, puffery is used by unscrupulous advertisers and agencies to create controversy for brand awareness. Those who are gullible to it, are likely to be mislead.
Taste in Advertising: We all have our own ideas as to what constitutes good taste. Hence, different things offend different people, what is in good taste to some may be objectionable to another. One dimension of taste is the product itself. Example, underwear, laxatives, hygiene ads etc. have higher levels of distaste than other ads do. Another dimension is the matching of certain ads with the program or media, for example, ads targeted to adults on Cartoon Network etc. A third dimension is that taste changes over time. What is offensive today may not be considered so in the future.
Current Issues: today the question of taste centers around the use of sex, nudity and violence to sell a product. For example, the fashion industry is criticized heavily for excessive and unnecessary use of sex and nudity. In defense, it is said that if advertisers don’t get what they want doing things as usual, they will look for new ways to do it. However, it is to the advantage of the advertiser to be aware of the current standards of taste. The safest way to make sure is to pretest the ad, this could help minimize the chances of producing distasteful advertisements.
Stereotyping: It refers to presenting a group of people in an unvarying pattern that lacks individuality and often reflects popular misconceptions. Advertising stereotypes large segments of the population- women, elderly, and minorities. However, this centers around the larger debate of whether advertising shapes society’s values or “mirrors” them. if it is the former, then the conclusion is that advertisers are aware of how to portray different groups. If it is the latter, then it is to ensure that what is portrayed is accurate and representative.
Women: portrayal of women has always been questioned widely. From supermom to superwoman when advertising changed the portrayal from the obsessive housewife to a professional woman. However, the challenge is to portray women realistically.
Racial and ethnic groups: It is important for advertisers to keep in mind that their advertisements have to globally accepted and in order to do so, they must not hurt any religious or cultural communities’ sentiments. For example, there was a United Colours of Benetton advertisement that showed two children, dressed up as a priest and a nun, kissing. The advertisement followed their tagline that said: We love controversies. Although the advertisement tried to portray the message of their tagline, it did so in a very direct, unethical way, thereby hurting the sentiments of the Catholic community.
As far as racial unity is concerned, Benetton has always had models from all ethnic backgrounds featured in their display advertisements and store posters. Another example would be, the Eureka Forbes advertisement that showed water as a symbol used in all religious and cultural groups, and it was widely appreciated as it signified unity and portrayed every religious group in good light.
Senior citizens: Most of the time, they have been portrayed as slow, senile and full of ailments in advertisements. However, the HDFC Life Insurance advertisement shows an old man getting down from the train without the help of his son, thereby showing independence and the fact that even though he has retired, he can take care of himself.
Political: Political advertising is subject to different rules than ads for commercial products and services. Because “political speech” is widely acknowledged as the core reason behind the free speech provisions of the First Amendment, the Supreme Court treats such speech as the most valuable, and hence most protected, form of speech. Political advertising is both advertising and political speech, but since it does not fall within the definition of “commercial speech”, it is considered political speech and receives the highest degree of protection under the First Amendment. However, it is not wholly unregulated though. It is subject to some minor restraint under the Federal Communications Commission’s Equal Access law.
Children: Issue of advertising law and ethics often centre around advertising’s potential impacts on children. Since 1970, many concerns and criticisms have been expressed about the effects of ads on kids and many laws have been proposed to deal with those effects. In addition to the Federal Trade Commission’s active involvement in protecting children, because much of the advertising targeting children historically has appeared on television, the Federal Communications Commission has been heavily involved in regulating such advertising. More recently, it has become common for advertising’s critics to cast otherwise unconstitutional regulatory proposals in terms of child protection. For example, after several congressional bills designed to curtail tobacco advertising failed, their sponsors began introducing bills to stop advertising tobacco that might have an impact on children.
Tobacco and Alcohol: Tobacco and alcohol advertisements are extremely popular targets for regulation. Both products can cause death or injury, and both are subject to attack by activist groups opposed to these products. Many critics have argued that ads cause consumption of these products and that the harmful impact of these goods can be diminished by curtailing or severely restricting the ads. Others counter that there is no real evidence that the ads cause consumption and that it is the product, not the advertising that is the danger, so it is the product that should be regulated.
Subliminal Advertising: Subliminal stimulation has become one of the more popular advertising related topics for students and lay-people. The idea is that certain things are heard, seen, or felt, that never reach our conscious thought processes, and that those things may still be recorded somewhere in our mind and have an impact on our decisions and behaviour. Advertising professionals use this concept to hide images within advertisements and that these images manipulate our behaviour without even realizing we have seen them. However, there is no evidence that advertisers embed hidden images in advertisements.
Testimonials
Untruthfulness in advertising is practically indefinable. It is easy to pick out statements in advertisements that are definitely untrue and others that are definitely true; but the dividing line between truth and false is difficult to determine. Hence, advertisers have realized the value of getting testimonials. Human beings want to copy those who they deem superior in taste, knowledge or experience. In large part, this spirit of emulation gives the advertising testimonial its strength. However there are times when some advertisers use unethical methods to obtain “proper” testimonials. The term ‘testimonial racket’ has been aptly applied to the techniques used by such advertisers. The payment of large sums of money for the testimonials of particular persons has been very common. Football players, movies stars, dentists, physicians, lawyers, socialites have been richly awarded for allowing their names to be attached to a testimonial for a given product. Many times the testimonial has not been written by the person whose signature is attached. There are also instances in which a testimonial of the same person has appeared on competing brands. In 1930, the Federal Trade Commission attempted to check the practice of buying testimonials. In a decision handed down on this subject, the commission stated that when a company paid for and used a testimonial in its advertising, it must also print in the same advertisement, a statement that the testimonial has been paid for. This decision of the commission was overruled in 1933 by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. The court held that paid testimonials need not be labeled as long as they were truthful. Patent medicine manufacturers have less difficulty in obtaining free testimonials than almost any other kind of company. Nature will cure most common human ailments if allowed to do so. If the medicine taken does no harm, the patient will usually get well inspite of it. But credit is given to the medicine rather than nature. Many such users are willing and anxious to praise the curative.
Misleading names and Labels The practice of using names on products and in advertising which tend to give a wrong impression as to quality or origin is to be condemned. The following cases of such use were recorded in reports of the Federal Trade Commission. The word “Havana” or “Habana” was used for a cigar made of tobacco not grown in Cuba. “Dirigold” was used to designate and describe flatware and hollow ware made from an alloy of base metals, containing no gold. One company even used the names “France” and “Paris” in cosmetic advertising when such products were not imported from nor manufactured from either of the two places. Names and labels are used by some companies to confuse the consumer as to the real manufacturer. This is done in an attempt to capitalize on the goodwill enjoyed by the established company that’s being imitated. These practices make it difficult for the consumer always to duplicate previous purchases by depending on remembering a name.
Exaggeration and misrepresentation This element in advertising has always been present. From a consumer’s point of view, much of advertising exaggeration is ignored. However, there seems to less use of superlatives and exaggerated elements in current advertising than there was few years ago. Among advertisements appearing in a well known magazine was one for a food product which promises to curb nervousness in growing children and add weight at the rate of a pound per week. Exaggeration and misrepresentation are most frequently encountered at the local level. One of the forms most often used is the “lowest price” claim. There are also advertisements and advertising practices that are in poor taste or are inconsiderate of the reader, listener, or viewer. The blatant use of sex symbols, unrestrained references to the most personal of body functions and excessive repetition are all common.

Deceptive Advertising
Deception exists when an advertisement is introduced into the perceptual process of some audience and the out of that perceptual process differs from the reality of the situation and affects buying behaviour to the detriment of the consumer. Thus, deception will be found if: 1) there is misrepresentation, omission, or practice that is likely to mislead. 2) The consumer is acting responsibly in the circumstances. 3) The practice material and consumer injury is possible because consumers are likely to have chosen differently if there was no deception. There are various ways in which misrepresentations or omissions occur:

* Suggesting that a small difference is more important: For eg, a cigarette ad claim that its product has less nicotine, attributes to an article that has appeared in a magazine. * Artificial product demonstration that shows a monster truck running over a row of cars, damaging all but the one advertised for. * Using an ambiguous or easily confusing phrase like government approved or low fat. * Implying a benefit that does not fully or partially exist: Vegetarian toothpaste. * Implying that a product benefit is unique to a brand: health drink that talks of being a complete substitute for a meal. * Implying that a benefit is needed or that a product will fulfill a benefit when it will not. Eg, milk in biscuits, chocolate as a meal or snack. * Incorrectly implying that an endorser uses and advocates the brand: using icons or celebrities to endorse a product that he/she has used and personally benefited. * Omitting a needed qualification: complete disclosure in an ad. There are wide variety to advertising brands that differ little in substance from competitors. It is common to associate a brand with an attribute of the product class, should the brand be required to state in its advertisement that all the brands are virtually identical in this respect. * Bait and Switch offers: This tactic requires placing an ad for an item at tremendous value. Upon reaching the store, the shoppers find that the item is “no longer available” and in order to alleviate their sorrow at the missing deal, they are directed to a similar item that, while not as good of a bargain, closely matches what they came in for. * Identifying the advertising: This is related to advertorials/infomercials where it should be mentioned that it is an advertisement. Disclosure or caution line should be clearly identifiable. * Intellectual property: Using research studies or data to push your product without giving due credit to the research organization that ahs spent considerable time and money to bring out the results. * False testimonials: these are tools that are used to increase attention, particularly with radio and print. Sometimes very effective as a form of advertising, they are not always done well. The intention behind real-person endorsements is to depict a stimulation of word-of-mouth advertising. They may show an expert, for example, a doctor in a white coat technique. But more often, they present “typical people” who appear to be just like us. This is the satisfied customer technique. The process of empathy and identification indicates that the more similar the “satisfied customers” are, the more effective their testimonials. There also needs to be an acceptable level for deception to occur. If health and safety are involved, it should be very low or zero. If the danger is in buying the wrong soap or toothpaste. Higher level can be tolerated. For an advertisement to be deceptive, it must contain a material truth, one capable of affecting purchase decisions. It is also likely that advertisements can cause public injury, where public injury means that a consumer must actually suffer damage and it must show that goods purchased are unequal to the value expended.

The following is the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)’s code of advertising practice to safeguard against the indiscriminate use of advertising in situations or of the promotion of products which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or of a type which is unacceptable to society at large:
No advertisement shall be permitted which: a) Tends to incite people to crime or t promote disorder and violence or intolerance. b) Derides any race, caste, colour, creed or nationality. c) Presents criminality as desirable or directly or indirectly encourages people to emulate it or conveys the modus operandi of any crime. d) Adversely affects friendly relations with a foreign state. e) Advertisements addressed to minors shall not contain anything, whether in illustration or otherwise, which might result in their physical, mental or moral harm or which exploits their vulnerability. f) Should not feature dangerous or hazardous acts which are likely to encourage minors to emulate such acts in a manner which could cause harm or injury. g) Advertisements should contain nothing which is in the breach of the law or omit anything which the law requires.

Dos and Don’ts for Indian Advertisers
Dos
a. To practice self-regulation by the advertising industry b. Advertising trade associations should be mainly concerned with maintaining high standards. c. Radio and television should cooperate closely to avoid permitting advertising that might cause unfavourable social reactions. d. Newspapers while publishing advertisements should publish the tariff charged for each advertisement to ensure that no unusual fee over and above the normal market rate is charged; which may have other undesirable implication. e. Newspapers should ensure that an advertisement is published in all editions contracted for. Deliberate omission constitutes gross professional misconduct. f. There should always be proper communication, vigilance and understanding between the advertisement department and the editorial department to avoid acceptance or publication of an undesirable advertisement. g. Editors should accept their right to accept or reject advertisements, particularly those which border on or cross the line between decency and obscenity. h. Ads must be truthful in descriptions, claims and comparisons, and these should be capable of substantiation on demand. i. Occasional and unintentional lapse in the fulfillment of advertised promise or claim is permissible if the said promise or claim is capable of fulfillment by a typical specimen of the product advertised. j. Observe fairness in competition so that the consumer’s needs to be informed on choice in the market place and the cannons of generally accepted competitive behaviour in business are both served.

Don’ts a. Individual media and media groups should preferably establish their own codes of ethics. Some newspapers and magazines refuse to publish advertisements for tobacco and alcoholic beverages. Most of them investigate the reliability of advertisers before accepting their copy. b. Do not possess, sell, or let to hire or otherwise promote circulation of any harmful publication in any part of India. c. Advertisements- textual, pictorial, graphical or otherwise- should not generate hatred, contempt or disaffection towards the Government or between different classes of citizens in India. d. Do not use in advertisements, the name, emblem or official seal of the United Nations and some of its specialized agencies and also the Indian National Flag, the name, emblem or the official seal of the Government of India or a state, Supreme Court, High Court and some official organs like the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Raj Bhavan. e. Avoid unauthorized use in your advertisements another person’s organizations trademark. This may attract civil and criminal liabilities. f. Advertisements in any form must not be used of drugs affecting miscarriage or prevention of conception in women or maintaining a man’s capacity for sexual pleasure or correcting menstrual disorders or treatment of venereal diseases etc. g. The advertisements should not hurt the religious feelings of any community by inappropriate use of the name or photograph/pictorial, presentation of Gods or Goddesses in promoting commercial products. h. Advertisements must not be published mixed up with editorial matter so that the two are clearly distinguishable. Journalistic propriety and ethics demand this. i. Advertisements must not contravene provisions of any relevant Act, like Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954, or any other law of the land, or go against good taste or journalistic propriety or ethics. j. Do not publish unauthorized or unpaid dummy advertisements which are against journalistic ethics. k. No advertisement should have the effect of impairing the confidence of the public on the product or its manufacturer, for the success of the advertisement depends upon public confidence. l. Do not use in your ad without permission, the name of firm, institution or person to get an undue advantage or by exposing to ridicule or disrepute. m. Advertisements shall not distort facts, nor mislead the consumer by means of implications or omissions either by statements or visual presentations. n. Obvious truths or exaggeration to amuse or attract customers are permissible only if these are not to be misunderstood as genuine qualities of a product. o. Advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar or repulsive which is likely to cause grave or widespread offence. p. No prize competition for prizes exceeding Rs.1000 a month should be held without a licence and no newspaper or other publication should publish advertisements in violation of the above prohibitions. This is also known as the Price Competition Act 1955.

Advertising aimed at Religious and Cultural minorities a. Slave advertisements which advertised the sale of slaves in early 19th Century in the USA, led to stereotyping of the blacks as Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens. b. From the end of the slave era to the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, blacks were negatively projected. It was only after the end of the Civil Rights Movement, that NGOs such as NAACP try to eliminate such ‘racist’ advertisements. c. In India, religious and cultural minorities are very seldom portrayed in advertisements. With a few exceptions, there are hardly any racist slurs made against cultural and religious minorities in India. d. Books such as “Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture” in advertising by Pete Lang have done pioneer research in ads aimed at cultural and religious minorities. But all those book and research papers have been written by European authors who study European markets and advertisements. e. Advertising big shots in the West and in India argue that the lack of diversity in selecting subjects from different culture and religious backgrounds is due to money, power and not racism. For example, in Europe, foreign markets and consumers pay more for entertainment products which use white people in lead roles or traditional roles. f. There is no doubt that advertisements are market driven and consumer driven. Consumers and markets influence advertisement content and roles. g. Women are generally projected in ads as playing secondary roles to men. They are housewives, dutiful home-makers etc. This is called portraying women in “traditional roles”, like mothers and housewives. Strong aggressive women like Uma Bharati are never used in these stereotypes because they won’t sell. h. Ethnic and racial minorities are often stereotyped in advertisements.

The following are advertisements that hurt religious sentiments of different communities:

* KEITH DENNIS’ radio commercials for his Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, called for a “jihad on the automotive market.” His salespeople would wear burqas and children would get rubber swords on “fatwa Friday,” the ad scripts said. “Our prices are lower than the evildoers’ every day. Just ask the pope!” His ads were refused by several radio stations and elicited a storm of objections from Muslim and Arab advocacy groups around the country. “This was simply an attempt at humor that fell flat,” Dennis said in a statement apologizing “to anyone who was offended.” Since the launch of America’s war on terrorism, ads insulting Arabs and Muslims were becoming more common. Such ads spread hatred and fear. Arab-American groups helped remove billboards planned for North Carolina and New Mexico in December 2005. The ads, designed by the New York-based Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, showed a man in a traditional Arab keffiyeh holding a grenade and a driver’s license. “Don’t License Terrorists,” the caption read. * Boeing and Bell Helicopter apologized in October 2006 for a magazine ad that showed their product, the CV-22 Osprey, and U.S. troops descending by rope from a plane onto a mosque surrounded by smoke and fire. * A tasteless spoof ad in January 2005 for Volkswagen featured a suicide bomber who detonates a bomb inside his Polo car. The car is so tough it does not explode. * In 1996, the NIKE controversy took Muslims by surprise. NIKE designed a range of summer basketball products unintentionally using a logo resembling the Arabic word “Allah” on the shoe’s backside and sole. After discussions with the Muslim community, led by CAIR, Martin Coles, NIKE’s vice president for Europe, launched an investigation, recalled the product, apologized to Muslims and began sensitivity training for employees.