ETHICS IN COMMUNICATION: Unethically Communicated Advertisement: Napoleon Brandy’s "Nakatikim ka na ba ng Kinse Anyos?" _______________________________________________________ ETHICS IN COMMUNICATION Unethically Communicated Advertisement: Napoleon Brandy’s "Nakatikim ka na ba ng Kinse Anyos?" We live in an age where technology is becoming greater than ever because of constant development and innovations. Different companies and businesses are promoting their products in different means of marketing and advertising just to come to make their product known and get mainstreamed. Others just go for the extreme even if it comes with big risks. This is where advertising sits in its place. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, an international education site, advertising is defined as the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Advertisements are used to get a message or a product through to the general public. Commercials not properly communicated can caused minds to be stimulated negatively. This creates a potential for advertising controversy. Advertising should be anchored on ethical communication principles of fairness, dignity, respect, and honesty. An ethical advertisement does not lie, makes no false or fictitious promises, and operates within the bounds of decency. In the year 2004, Napoleon Brandy ran an ad campaign with the line "Nakatikim ka na ba ng 15 anyos?" What was thought to be a successful and attention-grabbing advertisement became a controversy in the Philippines. As much as we'd want to believe that it was just an advertisement, we can't deny that it has a double meaning: "Have you tasted a 15-year-old?" The public protested for the removal of this seemingly offensive, depraved, and vulgar Napoleon Brandy billboard advertisement. The ad's intended audience are brandy or wine lovers of the right age. Still, because of the placing of the ad and its contents, it didn't only reach its target audience but rather a much broader audience that recalled that when non-drinkers read the teasing question printed on the napoleon brandy billboard, drinking was the last thing that came to their mind. That's despite the fact that the giant image of a bottle of brandy was right beside the printed words. What's more disappointing is that Napoleon Brandy even pursued legal charges against those who have called the attention of regulating bodies and the general public to their irresponsible advertising. The folly of equivocation is very visible. When a term, phrase, or statement is intentionally used to confuse, deceive, or mislead, it is called equivocation. In other words, speaking one thing while implying a different meaning. Napoleon Brandy's creators aimed to accentuate the brandy's fifteen-year-old age, counting on wine connoisseurs' preference for older wines. However, if you take it deeply, it does seem to mean otherwise. This leads me to believe that this is their strategy for breaking into the mainstream media by misleading their audience. However, it didn’t go as intended since the public called for the boycotting of the brand. The advertisement was deemed disrespectful, rude, and degrading by proponents of the women's movement, and was deemed harmful to the well-being of Filipino women and children. The catchphrase of the campaign encourages and reinforces a culture that glorifies men who can sample, taste, or hitch younger ladies, or worse, girls. By doing so it increases the vulnerability of women and children to violence. To put it frankly, the message of the advertisement supports pedophilia. References Used: Britannica Group. (2020). Fallacies | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://iep.utm.edu/fallacy/ FilipiKnow. (2022, January 21). 11 Controversial and Banned Filipino Advertisements. https://filipiknow.net/controversial-advertisements-in-the-philippines/ Lasallianservant, V. A. P. B. (2017, July 30). Advertising Ethics. Hello, Hello, Hello, How Low? https://lasallianservant.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/advertising-ethics/
