Chapter 7: What to Advertise
This chapter discusses what should or should not be
advertised as well as special considerations for
advertising certain products.
Points to consider:
• People are free to make up their own
minds.
• Advertising is persuasive.
• No study has resulted in concrete
evidence of the lasting affects of
persuasive advertising.
Chapter 7 Cases
• Case 28: A Magazine and Its Cigarettes
• Case 29: Does Alcohol Advertising Get a
“Free Ride”?
• Case 30: Promoting Smart Tanning?
• Case 31: Feminine Hygiene in the Living
Room
• Case 32: Empowering or Manipulating the
Health Care Consumer
Case 28: A Magazine and Its
Cigarettes
• Facts– Empirical Definition
• Values
• Loyalties
• Principles
Cigarette advertisements
targeting women.
• Should advertising and
articles in a magazine
coincide?
• Should a magazine
advertise a product that is
against its mission
statement?
•Can responsibility and a
laissez-faire attitude
ethically exist in the same
business?
Case 28: Additional links
Cigarette Advertising – Includes history and
gallery.
Cigarettes and Magazines – How the
relationship thrives.
Marketing Cigarettes to Women – Facts and
history of an industry and its target.
Surgeon General’s Report – Women are a
target market.
Case 29: Does Alcohol Advertising
Get a “Free Ride”?
• Facts– Empirical Definition
• Values
• Loyalties
• Principles
Alcohol advertisements
tend to focus on sports,
sex or rebels.
• Would it be useful for
consumers to know more
about the connection
between alcohol and
crime? If so, who should
tell them?
• Should the government
force breweries to
advertise the risks of their
product like the tobacco
agencies do?
Case 29: Additional links
Beer Institute – Read what the industry has
to say about its advertising and its
responsibilities.
Alcohol Advertising – Article addressing
advertising related to consumption.
Alcohol Advertising and Youth – How are
children effected?
Youth Oriented Advertising – Types of
alcohol commercials that attract children.
Case 30: Promoting Smart Tanning?
• Facts– Empirical Definition
• Values
• Loyalties
• Principles
People soaking in the sun,
and several types of skin
cancer.
• What do you think of
Classic Tan’s claim of the
“bias” of the AAD?
• Should an independent
study of the effects of
tanning be conducted
before advertising
continues?
• Should advertising
tanning beds be regulated
like that of cigarettes?
Case 30: Additional links
TanningTruth.com – Visit the site in question.
American Academy of Dermatology – Read
the rebuttals to tanningtruth.com’s
statements.
An Introduction to Skin Cancer – Facts about
skin cancer.
So You Wanna Safe Tan? – Tips for healthy
tanning.
Case 31: Feminine Hygiene in the
Living Room
• Facts– Empirical Definition
• Values
• Loyalties
• Principles
Some of the personal
products advertised
during prime time.
• When a commercial
bothers you, how do you
respond?
• How should solutions
and aids for private
matters be advertised?
• Are these ads
insensitive? If so, is it on
the part of the advertiser
or the station?
Case 31: Additional links
Some Commercials Off the Menu at Meal Time –
China bans unappetizing commercials for certain
time periods.
Annoying Medical Commercials – A discussion of
commercials that prompt squirming and laughter.
Blood on Their Hands – Tampon companies should
be more responsible with their advertising.
Early Commercials – See how feminine hygiene
used to be presented to the public.
Case 32: Empowering or
Manipulating the Health Care
Consumer
• Facts– Empirical Definition
• Values
• Loyalties
• Principles
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s memoir, Prozac
Nation, offers one perspective of
struggles with depression and
prescription drugs.
Advertisements for
Celebrex, Nexium and
Zoloft.
• Is it right to have
celebrities endorsing
prescription medicines?
• How aware are
patients of the risks of
these medicines?
• What ethical principles
are involved here?
Case 32: Additional links
Prescription Drug Advertising on the Internet – A
proposal for regulation.
FDA Oversight – A report on direct-to-consumer
advertising for drugs from the General
Accounting Office.
Drug Advertising Skyrockets – The growth of an
advertising market.
Law, Medicine and Ethics – What do the
pharmaceutical companies have to tell
consumers?