MORAL DUTY IN ADVERTISING

I think that advertisers should have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people because it is damaging to the way society thinks. Although advertisements are a popular form of media, any form of media should be dealt with responsibly so as not to promote any harmful ideas as we do live in a world where our brains absorb a huge amount of information each day. Not to mention that advertisements present ideas in a manner which is subtle and does not reveal the message directly to the audience. For example, an advertisement of axe body spray is about being clean and staying fresh. However, if the ad had a male spraying it on him and then a flock of attractive women were to run to him, it would be easy to say that the underlying meaning of this ad is that all women crave a man (when this is not in fact true). This could be particularly harmful to the way in which people view women, as this would render them as more of a compliment to the man’s life than actual human being with their own thoughts and ideas. Therefore, it can be said that advertisers do have a moral duty to avoid stereotypes for the reason that it can oppress certain groups. Another point to add would be that, with this projection of an image of what a group is (in relation to a stereotype), this can influence others to think the same way. Since advertisements are a mass-form of media, it can be accessible to anyone anywhere of which means that a way of thinking can be efficiently forced into every individual’s minds.

On the other hand, it is also worth noting the reasons why advertisers do not always need to have the moral duty to not stereotype. For example, if advertisers were to oppress white supremacists as a background to an advertisement about bedsheets (as if comparing them to the KKK), this could be particularly beneficial as it furthers the image that the clan was a negative aspect of our world. In general, advertisers can choose two paths when advertising their products; one that portrays every group equally, or one that suppresses many. From this, one cannot help but ask why stereotypes in advertisements just be avoided altogether. This way there would be no negative or positive messages for any advertisement as it would purely be for the purpose of just selling a product. However, the fall back of this is that society is too comfortable allowing easy influences (such as an attractive person in an ad) to make their decision of buying a product. Knowing this, another question is brought up–how do you sell a product without using any of the popular ad-tricks? Should we just have the product on a white background with a person narrating the product? Even with this, which gender would you pick to narrate the product? What if people take offense that the background is white?

In conclusion, society should push for advertisement agencies to adjust the way they advertise their products to avoid stereotyping as this would make people finally think of people as just “people” and not typecast. In contrast, before any steps like these can be taken, advertisers would need to know how to filter ads from stereotypes whilst also being able to effectively sell their product, as many people in society have already fallen into their stereotype due to the damaging effects of the past.