Ethics in My Life

By Katelyn Watkins

https://katelyn1watkins.wordpress.com/

I’m an advertising major. Well, it’s strategic communications to be exact. I never thought I’d be taking an ethics class my senior year. I figured I’d have campaigns, copywriting, media, and lots and lots of coming up with creative ideas. A class on ethics never came to my mind. I had no idea what to expect when I first walked into the basement and sat down next to my friends. However, I did think, “Well this must be somewhat important if almost every advertising senior is in this class.” Although I had no idea what ethics had to do with advertising, I do now. Ethics is what constitutes what’s right and wrong in our society.  It helps us make a framework for decisions. It helps us decide what to do when we meet a fork in the road. It’s a theory or system of moral values, which we all need in the professional world and our personal world. Ethics is important.

Another one of my professors was chatting with me one afternoon and asked me what other classes I was taking. When I mentioned ethics, he started laughing. I was a little confused so I had to ask why he was laughing at that. He responded, “Ethics and advertising, that’s funny. I didn’t know ethics existed in advertising.”  Ever since that day I’ve been intrigued to find out exactly what ethics means to advertising. The light bulb went off when we were shown a PowerPoint titled “Ethics in Advertising: The Ultimate Oxymoron.” So, maybe it’s not just that one professor who thought the idea of ethics in advertising didn’t make sense.  In the lecture I found out many things I would have never know. In fact, advertising is ranked 43rd among 45 professions surveyed for honesty in Gallup poll. It may not be dead last, but it’s pretty close to being the absolute most dishonest profession out there.  That is the exact moment I realized, “oh crap, I want to get into an industry that everyone doesn’t think believes in honesty and being ethical.”

I guess it makes sense though if you take a look around at all the advertisements. There are deceptive ads, manipulative ads, subliminal ads, stereotypical ads, fear appeal, sexual ads, and misleading ads.  As an advertising student, I’ve always looked at ads as something creative that gets people’s attention and bring a brand to their mind instantly. I hated seeing advertising as something some people saw as brainwashing and deceptive. What made me the most upset was children’s advertising. When did advertising stoop so low that they had to target children who can’t even buy the products themselves? From cereal boxes to ads after ads on cartoon channels, they are making kids want every single toy possible. It shouldn’t be this way. Nor should advertising be all about sex sex sex. I swear, everywhere I look I see an ad using a sex appeal to sell a product that has nothing to do with being sexy. Since when is a Fiat sexy? Or why does Go Daddy have the most scandalous ads? It’s frustrating more than anything. Where’d ethics go in advertising? Was it ever even there? That’s a great question. It seems like the agencies only responsibility is to their client’s marketing objectives instead of the consumers around the world. On the other hand, their job is to put their clients in the best light. It’s a complicated mess, ethics and advertising.

All I know is if I’m ever the person behind the desk creating the ads, I’m sure as hell going to make sure it’s ethical. The last thing I want to do is create ads that people see as deceptive and wrong. Be creative, but be careful. Remember the community for which the ads are being created. It’s not about making money. It’s about being someone who people can look up to and be recognized for their great work; work that is ethical.

What I’m going to take into my career is a broader knowledge of ethics and what it means to be ethical. I need to be ethical and most important I need to make sure I’m working for a company that believes in the same things as I do. I want to make sure that wherever I end up, the actions are ethical and just in our society. Thanks to Professor Bufkins, I can now say I know what it means to be ethical and I refuse to work for someone who doesn’t have their own code of ethics.  Ethics may have been extremely confusing when I first walked into the classroom but now I know more than I ever imagined I would. Ethics is more than just a class. So I’ll leave with this quote by William Penn: “What is wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. Right is still right, even if no one else is doing it.” Do what’s right even if no one else is doing the same. It makes you a better person and in the end, being ethical is the wisest choice you can make.

Intellectual Property in Advertising

By Katelyn Watkins

https://katelyn1watkins.wordpress.com/

Advertising is Growing

Creative advertising is about coming up with unique, cutting edge ways of selling products and services in order to entice consumers to buy.  With so many products competing it’s hard to keep the facts straight and keep coming up with different ideas than everyone else’s. Creativity is something advertisers have to protect so that no one else can steal their ideas. The elements of a good advertisement are likely to be imitated or copied. Creativity is challenging and the last thing a creative wants is someone else taking their work and making money. This is why intellectual property comes in handy for advertising as the industry keeps growing faster with each day.

Types of Intellectual Property

There are many different types of intellectual property rights involved in advertising in order to make sure the elements of a great ad aren’t copied by others. These types of intellectual property rights come into play in making an ad, like the ones we see on the television every single day. Lien Verbauwhede talks about these types of intellectual property: creative content, slogans, sounds, signs, geographical indications, graphic symbols, screen displays, websites, web design, software, means of doing business, identity, packaging, and even unfair advertising methods. According to Lien Verbauwhede, “Businesses are finding ever more inventive ways to advertise their products and services. With each level of increased sophistication in the advertisement, additional IP rights are raised.”  This makes sense. Look around when you’re driving or walking around the mall. Advertising has reached a whole new level. There are ads on our phones, on the escalator we take upstairs, and even people are advertisements. The level of advertising won’t stop anytime soon and it’s increasing more and more as time flies by. As they increase, competition gets nasty. This is when IP rights come into play to keep things from getting too ugly.

Protecting Creative Works of Advertising

Intellectual property rights are a creative’s best friend if they use them wisely. There are many strategies that can be used to protect creations by using the IP system.  One is registering your advertisement and any other protected material like trademarks. Along with this, use your trademarks consistently and properly in all your marketing, advertising, and promotional material so that people start being aware of what your trademark is and don’t get confused when you use different colors, fonts, or other features. Another thing creatives need to do is alert the public that a copyright law legally protects their material. This reminds me of every time I watch a movie and the legal notice pops up letting me and everyone else know that movie is someone else’s work. When I was younger I really did not understand the screen that screams at me WARNING. I just thought it was another commercial wasting my time. Now I realize how important that 30-second screen is to the people who put in all their hard work and dedication to making the film extraordinary. It’s the same way with advertising. Why do all that hard work and in the end someone else reaps the benefits because you didn’t protect your work? You have to make sure it doesn’t happen.  As stated above there are several ways of protecting your creative work so start with something. Take precautions and be prepared. According to Lien Verbauwhede, “Businesses often spend much time and money to create successful advertising campaign. It is important to protect your IP assets, so that others do no unfairly copy or free ride upon your innovative creations.” Just like I said, it’d be a shame to put all that hard work into something that turns out great and you don’t get the reward for it because you didn’t think to protect the work before you put it out there for the rest of the world to see.

Here Comes the Trouble

According to an article on Ad Age by Rupal Parekh, agencies are increasingly looking to defend intellectual property rights. A letter was sent out to 30 major industry consultants saying that “Members of the 4A’s new business committees would like to encourage you to consider including a stipulation in all of your agency search agreements that specifies the rights to intellectual property created by agencies during the review process remain the property of the agency until the marketer either hires the agency to execute the work or the parties agree to a commercially equitable payment for the assignment of usage rights.” David Beals, CEO at consultancy Jones Lundin Beals doesn’t agree that the 4A’s is asking the consultants to do the formal agreements with their clients. He believes it’s an issue between the agency and the prospective client. This is where agencies need to take a stand and say they are not going to participate if the client just wants them to give out ideas for free. It’s a tricky and confusing situation for an agency to be in but I can understand the fear that agency’s have in these situations. They don’t want to give out their ideas and not be compensated for it because they are not the winning agency picked by the client. “It isn’t because clients are assholes,” said Hasan Ramusevic, owner of Hasan & Co. in Raleigh, N.C. “There are a lot of legal factors to consider.” This fight for rights has been an ongoing issue but agencies are finally starting to push and fight back. Now, agencies are starting to speak up about it.

So what?

Advertising is all about creativity. They sit in their offices all day coming up with brilliant ideas and throwing away ridiculous ones. After days and days of stress and no sleep, a break through happens and they’ve got it: that one big idea. This idea then becomes a huge campaign around the world and this agency and their creatives are the ones to be recognized. Now imagine you were that creative that came up with the extraordinary idea. Imagine you didn’t protect your work and someone else stole it from you and took all the credit. How would you feel? You’re pissed aren’t you? It is impossible in this day and age to be successful in advertising without understanding the legal framework that surrounds the business. Live it, learn it, love it. You’ll need it in advertising.

 

 

Works Cited

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/agencies-defending-intellectual-property-rights-reviews/141909/

 

http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/ip_advertising.htm

Public Relations vs. Ethics

Current research supports that there’s a historical trend relating PR with being unethical. People debate that there cannot be ethical public relations because the practice of PR itself is about manipulation and deceit. There’s a belief that the term public relations ethics is actually an oxymoron (Ethics and Public relations).

There’s that never ending question “is ethics in public relations an oxymoron?” Is it an unreal possibility in our time? Is ethical behavior an actual goal of the industry or is it something the professionals pretend to carry out but actually don’t? People believe that the influence of PR and lobbying is one of the biggest threats to the truthfulness in journalism. Those are questions that PR professionals should answer and prove everyone who’s doubted them that they can too act ethically.

“The only way to practice ethical PR is to work in the NGO or voluntary sector, all the rest is corporate propaganda or spin” (Ethical PR). This statement doesn’t make sense. It assumes that making money is an unethical act. So are we all unethical then because we have jobs and are trying to make a living for our families? I don’t agree with that. PR firms aren’t the only ones trying to make some money. Pretty sure making money is the goal of most companies out there. Why would we bother with ethics to begin with in public relations if the entire economy were a ramp for unethical behavior? It’s like saying; well you’re already unethical because you want to make money (Ethical PR). Whoever made that statement needs to answer me this: why are public relations firms trying so hard to get ethics into their business? It’s a touchy subject, as is ethics in any other business.

“PR pros are known for being able to ‘spin’ the worst news into good press but they are reluctant to tackle their own industry’s bad ethical reputation” (Public Relations and Ethics). The habit of spinning bad actions into something positive is the top reason that most people distrust the profession of PR. They think its about egoism, doing what makes them and their client look the best regardless of the outcome in it’s customers, community, and most importantly the outcomes. This is something PR practioners need to work on along with a handful of other professionals out there.

Ethics In Modern PR Practices

The ability to engage in ethical reasoning in public relations is actually growing in demand, importance, and responsibility. More and more professionals are paying more attention to ethics.  A PR professional is like a brand manager for a company. If that professional finds out that the company is doing something unethical it is their role and responsibility to speak out their opinion or stand up within that company. It’s their job to advise management that they are not keeping their promise to consumers. If and when the management refuses to change, this is when an ethical dilemma arises for the PR professional of what to do next. Normally, this becomes a personal choice based on his or her ethics. Just like in advertising, ethics in PR has mainly been based off consequentialism. It all depends on the outcome of the situation. Other times it can be based off egoism, they make decisions based off of what makes them and the company look good. Then there are companies who actually look out for the community and don’t just think about themselves. These are the companies who make public relations look good.

According to The Star Telegram, TCU officials didn’t wait around for the media to find out about the 15 students arrested in the drug bust earlier this year. Instead of trying to sweep it under the rug, they announced it loud and clear.  “There is an old saying among crisis managers: Always go for the quick bleed rather than the slow hemorrhage,” said Chris Anderson Director of Communications for the Marketing Arm. Chris said, “Get it out there and get it over with” (Brand). He believes TCU did a great job handling the situation and I could not agree more. In this horrible situation TCU got involved in, the PR professionals dealt with it like all practioners should. They didn’t try to hide the truth from the public or people who would be affected by the tragedy. Communitarianism should be the base for all modern PR practices.  A communitarian base to public relations can help organizations respond appropriately during times of crisis like the one at TCU.

In some instances, a client’s true interest may lie in complete openness, and disclosure in their communications to draw attention to their story and message. In these situations, PR professionals have every reason to be open and forthcoming. On the other hand there are other times when the client’s best interest may be making sure particular facts never see the light of day. It’s then the practioner’s job is to minimize the impact and duration of the information flowing around, known as damage control. This is what many people believe holds the most value in the work of PR practioners. However, some people don’t see this as ethical because they feel that it’s not benefiting everyone, just the client and the practioner. Public Relations is a two way street. It’s about protecting the client and the community at the same time. It’s about representing our organization to the public and then presenting the public back to our organization. In the end, PR is about maintaining relationships with the public so ethics should always be in play.

 

Sources:

http://www.instiituteforpr.org/topics/ethics-and-public-relations/

http://contemporarypr.blogspot.com/2010/02/ethical-pr-reality-for-entire-industry.html

http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2005/04/ethics_in_pr.html

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/16/3741308/experts-praise-tcus-aggressive.html

http://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/public-relations-ethics-bad-reputation/

Ethics vs. Advertising

Advertising has been in a long battle with ethics from the beginning. There will always be someone who is offended by an ad or someone who is going to go complain about it because it’s wrong in some way according to their standards. This controversy may never end. Why is this? When I sat down to think about it, a light bulb went off. The reason is because advertising is here to persuade people. It’s what we useto sellproducts and brands. The messages up on billboards and television are there to tell you, “Go buy what I am showing you.” This makes me think of the movie, Josie and the Pussycats. It’s about a girl pop band and a company using their music to send subliminal messages about various products. The music is basically brainwashing all the people who listen to Josie and the Pussycats. This is how some people view advertising. Sometimes, it even involves extending the truth a little bit, in other words, sometimes it involves lying to consumers. But to what extend is this okay? It’s a question that is hard to answer. This is where the ethics of the business come into play.

Ethics in advertising has mainly been based upon consequentialism. The consequences determine whether or not the ad was good or bad. If an ad is discriminating but it increases sells, then it’s okay.  For example, ads back in the day about cigarettes never told the whole story about how cigarettes can cause lung cancer and eventually kill you. The Marlboro cowboy sold a ton of icky cigarettes, so it was okay from an advertising standpoint. Ads need to tell the whole story. Okay, maybe not an hour-long story about how it causes cancer but it has to show the truth, especially when that truth could kill consumers. It has to provide enough information about the product that the consumer has to be aware of. Just watch television for one night and you will see a Cymbalta ad or something like it. They always have a part where it tells you all the side effects and things you need to be aware of if you are taking the medication. Not all ads do this though when they need to. This leaves the question of when does an advertising agency or advertiser know where to draw the line of what needs to be said and what doesn’t? Do we include all the details of the drug in the advertisement? Do we need to say all the ingredients in a food product? It’s a tricky situation. The way I see it, if it could possibly be of harm to a great amount of people, it needs to be said.

That being said, I think advertising would benefit to follow more of a communitarian viewpoint. When coming up with an ad for a company, creative’s should be thinking, “Is this benefiting the majority of consumers?” If it’s not then something may be wrong with the ad and we need to take a look at before dispersing it around the world for all to see. This can be tricky because a lot of good advertisements aren’t going to benefit a majority of the community. That’s why we target ads to a certain target market. What happens when the rest of the community is outraged by one ad? Is that ad worth it? Probably not. We must think about before we act. What if even the target market is outraged by the ads? For example there are a lot of stereotypical ads targeted towards the African American community. The ones that come to mind are McDonalds. Every time it features a black couple, and it plays some R&B music. Are you telling me that every single black person loves R&B? Come on, do something different. Dig deeper to find a better way to reach that target audience than pulling out all the stereotypes in the book.

Now that I’m off my rant let’s get down to the nitty gritty of ethics in advertising. According to Carrol.edu, “morally good advertising seeks to get people to act rationally in morally good ways. On the other hand, morally evil advertising seeks to move people to do evil deeds that are self-destructive and destructive of authentic community.” Carrol.edu goes on to explain that there are three specific moral principles that advertising needs to follow. First, is to respect truthfulness. Advertising should never mean to deceive its viewers and use untrue advertising. They need to be careful to not distort the truth in whatever it is selling. Second, respect the dignity of everyone, this means children as well as the poor. Using appeals can go too far and take advantage of people who may not know any better. Last, advertising needs to respect social responsibilities. Ads have to be socially responsible in what they are telling its consumers. We don’t want to be telling people that all we need are fancy cars and a luxurious lifestyle all the time.

Geoffrey Klempner holds three charges against ethics in advertising. He claims, “They sell us dreams, entice us into confusing dreams with reality. They pander to our desires for things that are bad for us. They manipulate us into wanting things we don’t really need.” He feels as if advertisers think that in the business world, normal ethics go out the window. There are universal rules and values that everyone should be obligated to oblige by even in the advertising industry. Why? Because advertising is all around us! Advertising has a huge effect on culture in general. Having a moral duty when it comes to advertising is a serious job.  As an advertiser, we have a moral obligation to the community to create ads that aren’t deceptive, harmful, or superficial. We have the duty to create ads that are clever, entertaining, and reasonable. Ads can make a difference.

 

 

SOURCES:

http://www.carroll.edu/msmillie/busethics/ethadvertising.htm

http://klempner.freeshell.org/articles/advertising.html

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/JosieAndThePussycats

 

The Need for Ethics in Media & Busines Decision-Making

We need something to tell us what is right and wrong in our society or else everything would be out of control. We all need order. There are too many people and businesses in our world to not have some standards. Ethics is the criteria on what we make our decisions. In the end, they help us to become better people. Not only is ethics important for business, it’s important for personal and professional needs.

Ethics is the way we think. It helps us solve problems when we have conflicting values.  Everyone has his or her own concept of what’s right and what’s wrong. That being said, it’s even hard to define what ethics really is. All I know is that it’s more than just a required class I have to take to graduate. It’s a life lesson that will come in handy.

Ethics today is more than what it used to be. In the past, many companies just thought that ethical issues in business were just some rules everyone had to agree to or sign a paper about.  According to CFAgbata.com, companies of all sizes are beginning to realize the importance of ethics in business and that it’s crucial for them to succeed. To be successful, you must learn ethics. In my opinion, I’d have to agree with that statement.  It’s about making the right choices that get you where you need to go rather than making unethical or bad decisions that can put you or your company in harm.  Think about the lovely example of the Carnival cruise line that is so big in the news today. The captain made a terrible, horrible, UNETHICAL choice.  Now look at the outcome of his decisions. He made a choice that he felt would benefit him and people have died from it. Ethics are about making choices that may not always feel good or seem like the benefit you. However, in the end those choices are the right ones to make. You must be thinking about the consequences your actions may have.

According to Myron Curry, ethics are thought of by many people as something that is related to the private life and not to the business part. When people think about ethics in their business they think of it as something negative. However, having ethics is a great thing for companies.  They have every bit as much a place in the public as they do is private, says Myron Curry. According to her, there should be no separate sets of ethics. I couldn’t agree more. You cannot be one person at home and one person at work and in one place you are ethical and the other ethics go down the drain. It goes hand in hand.

Now, ethics in media is just as important. According to Louis Alvin Day, there is a definite need for ethics in media. Day talks about three reasons ethics are important. First is because the media are the primary source of information. If there were no ethics in media, what we hear on the news may not even be the truth. Journalists job is to report the truth. They tell us what we need to know and we rely on them for information. If ethics didn’t exist in the media, what would we be hearing on the news station at night? Who knows. I’d be concerned if there wasn’t a need for ethics in media for that reason in particular. There has got to be some boundaries. Second, the media’s function is to transmit persuasive communications. We don’t want to persuade people with a bad intent. Would you want someone in advertising making an ad to tell you to cheat in the corporate world to get to the top? I’d like to think that’s a bad idea and you wouldn’t agree with that advertisement. No one wants false advertising either. Ethics in the media helps keep the wrong out. The third reason ethics is important in media is because of another function media has. That is the production and dissemination of mass entertainment. Like I said before, no one wants unethical advertising, news, movies, television shows, etc. Another way to think about the need for ethics is in media sales. I intern at a radio station in the marketing and sales department. When it comes to ethics, all the account executives must know what it means. There is no underselling the clients. You don’t promise them something and not give it to them when you have their money for it. Ethics is a way of life in the world of media from selling it to marketing it, to when it’s out their for the world to see. The media is extremely persuasive and it’s everywhere. Media isn’t going to simmer down anytime soon so we have to get used to it being all around us. Therefore, there needs to be ethics in order to keep things right. There is a huge need for ethics in the media as there is in any other part of our lives.

It’s more than being number one; it’s about doing the right thing and accomplishing things the right way. Think about it… If you do something unethical to further yourself in your career are you going to feel good about that later in life? Knowing that you were benefited simply because of something horrible you did. It’s not what you intended to do that matters. It’s what you actually did that counts. Does it make you feel good? Are you going to regret it later? Really think about the actions you take. In the end there are always consequences.  Don’t take the easy way out. Do what’s right.

 

 

Source List

 

Day, Louis Alvin. Ethics in Media Communications, Cases and Controversies. 5^th ed. Boston, MA Wadsworth, 2006.

 

Ethical Issues in Business by  CFAgbata

http://www.cfagbata.com/ethical-issues-in-business-and-the-importance-of-ethics/

 

Ethics in the Workplace by Myron Curry

http://www.business-marketing.com/article-businessethics.php

 

Day 1 Complete

Well I started my first day at my internship at ESPN this morning. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it went. In one day I learned so much in fifteen minutes of a sales meeting than I would have in one month trying to find out information on my own. I loved meeting all the new people I will working for and can’t wait until next week!