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Chapter 6
The Regulatory and Ethical
Environment of Promotions
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1.
2.
3.
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5.
6.
Discuss the impact of promotion on society’s well-being.
Summarize ethical considerations related to brand promotion campaigns.
Describe aspects of advertising regulated by the U.S. government.
Summarize the regulatory role of the Federal Trade Commission.
Explain the meaning and importance of self-regulation by marketers.
Discuss the regulation of direct marketing, sales promotion, and public
relations.
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Social Impact of Brand Promotion
• On the positive side, promotional efforts are said to:
• benefit society by increasing the standard of living through lowered product
costs (by stimulating demand, increasing probability new products will
succeed, fueling competition and improvement, diffusing innovations)
• foster innovation, especially artistic creations
• provide revenues to support mass media
• deliver a constant flow of information valued by consumers
• inform people about political and social issues
• At the same time, critics have said:
• promotional expenditures are wasteful, intrusive, and manipulate consumers
into buying something they may want but don’t really need (NOTE:
Remember that advertising cannot stimulate a basic need, but it can
stimulate a person to act on an existing desire.)
• messages are often offensive to society and frustrating to those who can’t
afford a lavish lifestyle
• advertisements are superficial and rarely furnish useful information
• advertisements perpetuate superficial stereotypes
• some critics have been concerned that advertisers are controlling consumers
with subliminal advertising messages (this claim is not well supported)
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Ethical Issues in Promotion
• Ethical considerations that frequently arise involve:
• truthfulness (puffery is considered legal)
• concern for the impact of promotional messages on children
• the promotion of controversial products and practices such as firearms,
gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, and junk food
• Ethical standards are a matter for personal reflection; for example, there are many
shades of gray between purely fact-based ads and intentional efforts to deceive by
withholding information or lying.
• Unethical people can create unethical advertising, but there are also many
safeguards against such behavior, including the corporate and personal integrity of
advertisers.
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Regulation of Advertising
• In the United States, advertisers may not engage in deceptive or unfair practices,
including:
• false vertical cooperative advertising allowances
• unfair comparison advertising
• the exercise of monopoly power
• According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) both implied claims and
missing information can be basis for deeming an ad deceptive.
• Legislation defines unfair advertising as “acts or practices that cause or are likely to
cause substantial injury to consumers, which is not reasonably avoidable by
consumers themselves, and not outweighed by the countervailing benefits to
consumers or competition.”
• The government places limits on the amount of advertising aimed at children on
television, and industry groups have developed guidelines for the content of ads
targeting children.
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Federal Government Regulation
•
•
There are a total of six federal government agencies directly responsible for advertising
regulations. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the largest, most
powerful, and most regularly used. The remaining five agencies each have areas of
specialization. These agencies include:
• the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
• the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
The FTC was established in1914 and has been especially active in trying to deter
deception and unfairness in advertising. Since then several important laws have passed:
• Wheeler-Lea Amendment (1938)
• Robinson-Patman Act (1936)
• Wool Products Labeling Act (1939); Fur Products Labeling Act (1951); Textile
Fiber Products Identification Act (1958)
• Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966)
• Truth in Lending Act (1969)
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (1970)
• FTC Improvement Act (1975)
• Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) (1990)
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Federal Government Regulation, Continued
• The FTC has developed regulatory remedies, such as the advertising
substantiation program.
• When the FTC determines that advertising is unfair or deceptive, it may:
• issue a consent order
• issue a cease-and-desist order
• require affirmative disclosure
• require corrective advertising
• The FTC also has issued guidelines for the use of celebrity endorsements.
• State regulation is rare, but can exist. States usually rely on the FTC for vigilance.
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Industry Self-Regulation
• Some of the most important controls on advertising involve voluntary selfregulation by marketing professionals.
• The American Association of Advertising Agencies has issued guidelines for
promoting fairness and accuracy when using comparative advertisements.
• Many other organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau, the National
Association of Broadcasters, and the Direct Marketing Association, participate in
the process to help ensure fairness and assess consumer complaints about
advertising and promotion. The Global Business Dialog on Electronic Commerce
(GBDe) is trying to establish itself as a trade association for the online industry in
an effort to create Internet self-regulation.
• One important self-regulation organization is the National Advertising Review
Board (NARB). The NARB is the operations arm of the National Advertising
Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
• Consumers also have multiple organizations that act as watchdogs and help police
advertising practices.
• These organizations are not empowered to impose penalties on advertisers, but
they are a powerful threat to deceptive advertisers.
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Regulation of Direct Marketing
and E-Commerce
• In direct marketing and e-commerce, the primary concern has to do with consumer
privacy.
• Laws and regulations, including the Do Not Call Registry and the CAN SPAM Act,
restrict the ways in which companies can contact consumers with a sales offer.
• Other restrictions are aimed at ensuring that contests and sweepstakes do not
amount to gambling opportunities.
• In sales promotions, premium offers, trade allowances, and offline contests and
sweepstakes are subject to regulation. Firms must state the fair value of “free”
premiums, trade allowances must follow the guidelines of fair competition, and
contests and sweepstakes must follow strict rules specified by the FTC.
• The regulation of public relations efforts requires that privacy (appropriation) be
protected and that firms avoid copyright infringement and defamation (slander and
libel).