Critiques or responds to general issues in business ethics Term Paper

Critiques or responds to general issues in business ethics - Term Paper Example There are a number of ethical issues which surround the advertising concerns. This is because advertising allows the masses to choose for their own selves the different products and services that are offered by the organizations. Now it is up to these organizations how well they enact measures and campaigns to sell their products and services to the end customers. It would be incorrect to state that all advertising is unethical, yet there are more chances that advertising will fox the people rather than being forthright in its dealings. This is because in the competitive world of today, it is important for the brands to make their cut, and this can only be done if there are whole-hearted efforts put in by the organizations to coin strategies and campaigns which will bring about the advertising for such products and services. The ethical debates are significant to understand because these will present forward the strengths that exist within the advertising circles and the grey areas w hich need to be plugged in essence. However, for the sake of discussion here, there is a fine line between the morally correct domains and the inadvertently wrong ideologies that are being propagated by the organizations as they aim to sell their respective goods across the board, either to the masses or to a selected audience. What remains most essential here is to gain an insight as to how this advertising is coming about – either in an ethical format or the complete lack thereof. This paper shall study the basis of business ethics within the realms of advertising and how certain target groups are more susceptible to advertising than others. The ethical issues that surround advertising include the fact that there are certain target audiences which are not apt and in line with the advertising that is being propagated today. This means that these people will take the opposite view which is not sent towards them, or is misunderstood on some occasions. What remains to be unders tood is how these people shall be targeted if the same methodology is not proving successful. The answer to this question lies in the dictum that advertising should be such that will cater to a select target audience while not relying on the other(s). This is true in the case of cigarette advertising where the smokers are properly advertised the message of the cigarette manufacturing company while the aspiring ones do not fall within the same limits of advertising (Phillips, 1997). Such issues also fall under the aegis of advertising which is done for the sake of the children. If they get the message wrongly, their impressionable minds get a message which is not intended for them in the first place. Thus what is required here is a vision to set things right and that too within the corrective realms of being ethical all the way. If these aspects are not adhered to, then there would be significant issues in the wake of properly reaching out to the relevant target groups, and there wou ld be a lot of wastage within the advertising quarters. The ethical dilemmas in advertising arise when one set of audience is geared to receive the benefits of advertising while the other does not get into the details at all. These could be possible within the same society as well, which is all the more understandable considering there are many factions, groups and segments within a target audience spanning a country or a region for that matter. The ethical dilemmas within the advertising realms is simply getting to the people without even letting the other group know what kind of advertising the former is getting. This is a contrasting instance but then again, proper planning and foresight need to be in line with achieving the results that one can think of the advertising circles in this day and age. The manner in which these ethical dilemmas in advertising are resolved is something that makes it all the more significant. If these ethical problems are not understood properly by the