1. INTRODUCTION:

Defining Advertising for the 21st^.Century:

People and organizations engage in a vast number of activities, formally or informally, which could be called marketing. Good marketing has become increasingly vital for success. But what constitutes good marketing is constantly evolving and changing the market scenario.

It is a result of careful planning and execution using state-of-art tools and techniques. It is both an art as well as science as marketers make great efforts to find creative new solutions to often-complex challenges in the 21st century marketing environment. Marketing is playing a key role in addressing challenges to prosper financially and even survive in the present economic environment. Accounting, operations, finance and other business functions matter with sufficient demand for products and services so that the firm could make profit. According to Kotler et al., (2012), marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. It is shortly defined as "meeting needs profitably". According to the American Marketing Association (2008), marketing is the activity, net of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. According to Peter Drucker (1973), the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer no well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Finally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy and to make the product or service available.

2. OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH:

2.1 Criticism About Advertising:

Advertisements are sometimes innovative and sometimes irritating, when they are repeated again and again especially while watching favourite programmes. The purpose of advertising is to create awareness of the advertised products and provide information that will assist the consumer to make purchase decisions. The importance of advertising depends on its capacity to influence consumers, not only to buy but to continue buying and eventually develop brand loyalty. But many consumers today feel there are fewer real product differences, so they show less brand loyalty and have become mom price and quality sensitive in their search for value and less tolerant about undesired marketing. According to Yankelovich"s (2005) record levels of marketing resistance from consumers; a majority reported negative opinion about marketing and advertising and said that they avoid products they feel are over-marketed. Obermiller et al., (2005) also argued that over-dramatized advertisements lead to irritated consumers. However, according to Mittal (1994), advertising has been accused of an array of sins ranging from an economic waste to supply of harmful products, sexism and manipulation.

Some researchers described advertising as a channel of information from the manufacturer to the consumers, whereas others said it as manipulation, propaganda and a misleading marketing instrument. It is often believed that the most effective media are often very expensive; the inexpensive media may not reach the target market, thereby making it difficult for most of the organisations to run advertisements. While advertising is seen as necessary for economic growth, it is also increasingly invading and exploiting schools, hospitals, traffic areas and private properties through billboards, posters, fliers by print media and viewers are bombarded with excess information through electronic media. Sometimes advertisements are unable to generate significant awareness to motivate a potential customer to purchase the advertised products. There are many advertisements that are not successful, as such many advertisements can be considered waste and irrelevant. Advertisements also have a negative side to it where it may not really be as beneficial, a few such cases are:

1. The more advertisements, the more the prices of the product which is a burden to customers.

2. Consumer's choice is highly injured by advertisements.

3. Creates confusion in the minds of the consumers.

4. It forces people to desire and buy goods, which in fact, are not within their means.

5. There are also situations where young children are affected by false claims made by companies through advertisements.

6. Advertising for alcohol, cigarettes, etc. harms the society.

2.2 Advertising is a Form of Mythmaking:

Consumer myths, marketplace mythology, and mythmaking are central concepts used by some advertising professors and advertising professionals today. Myths are more than entertaining little stories about gods, goddesses, and heroic characters. The universality of myths, the fact that the same myths recur across time and many cultures, suggests that they originate somewhere inside of us. Advertisers sell products by mythologizing them, by wrapping them in our dreams and fantasies. Advertising is not simply in the business of "selling soap”. Advertising turns products into brands by mythologizing them by humanizing them and giving them distinct identities, personalities, and sensibilities that reflect our own. Advertising has discovered a powerful truth: Dreams sell McDonalds where a clown comes to play and everyone is happy is a fantasy. Coca-Cola blissful fellowship over a soft-drink is a dream.

Marlboro independence, strength, and companionship away from the strains of urban life are a fantasy. Mr. Clean, a genie released from a bottle that cleans houses for you lives in the world of advertising. The myths that advertising has created around these brands have transformed the ordinariness of hamburgers, soft drinks, cigarettes, and housework into powerful brands.

2.3 Objectives of the study:

1. To know the media habits of the respondents in regard to watching ads, its frequency, purpose, exposure, to particular type of media.

2. To find out the attitude and perception of youth towards commoditization of women, misleading, deceptive advertising, targeting kids in ads, surrogate advertising, racial, cultural, religious and materialism in advertising.

3. To find out whether ads promote undesirable, unethical values in youth in subliminal ways.

4. Find out the way of perception of youth towards these ads –which they may not perceive as unethical in the context of changing values.

5. To Identify how youth perceive overt behavior due to the influence of advertisements being targeted to them.

6. To identify the need for a single comprehensive legislation to regulate advertising in India.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW OF RESEARCH:

3.1 Literature Review – 1980– 2000 (The Era of Globalisation begins):

● The products which were in their list included condoms, female hygiene products, female undergarments, and male undergarments.

● Consumer Protection Act implemented in India in the year 1986 has regulations which are disciplinary in nature whereas any person entrepreneur who deceives or causes damage through unfair practices of advertising is penalized but such penalty is meagre and minimal as peanuts for big corporate firms, where as in delayed justice system consumer couldn’t get compensation within time. (CAI, 2010)

3.2 Literature Review– 2001 – 2010 (post globalisation era):

● Sexuality and use of sex appeal in advertising is a major area of ethical concern. Many ads present sexual appeals which reflect upon weak roles of women, showing them as submissive and in need of constant alteration or improvement as suggested (Cohan,2001).

3.3 Literature Review – 2011 onwards (Present Scenario):

● The direction in which TVCs are moving today, has generated enormous social tension to which we have not been able to find appropriate solutions. The situation as on date is that via these commercials, power has been transferred to business houses that have consistently ignored the social implications of their actions. (Singh and Sandhu, 2011).

● An unprecedented number of legal issues are facing the ad business today. It's not just about court cases, laws and regulations -- these are bigger, weightier legal issues, the kind that will represent real forks in the road and critical decision points for advertising executives. The advertising industry and the agency business is not simply being buffeted by change, they are change agents. Today, the importance of advertising to the economy, society and the introduction of new technology has never been more critical (Ron Urbach, 2011).

● In a study it was seen that alcohol manufacturers continue to allure youth and a rise in number is seen in the consumption among youth. The voluntary shift to 30 percent resulted in a substantially lower number of alcohol ads in magazines, according to the center. Meanwhile, the number of alcohol commercials increased, especially on cable channels. More than half of commercials watched by youth featured one of 12 brands: Miller Lite, Coors Light, Captain Morgan Rums, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Miller Genuine Draft Light Beer, Crown Royal Whiskey, Corona Extra Beer, Disaronno Originale Amaretto, Smirnoff Vodkas, Miller Chill, Signature, Blenders pride and Labatt Blue Light Beer (Jenna Johnson, 2013).

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

4.1 Origin of the Research problem:

There are several needs that this research addresses. This research tries to emphasize on the fact and bring forth the realities which today’s Indian youth are exposed to because of advertisement. The West is now looking towards the Indian sub continent which has the demographic advantage of around 65% of the population below 30 years of age. The local and indigenous knowledge traditions are often ignored in the glitter of modern advances, though its significance is realized globally.

However many studies have been done in the past but results do not comprise the overall effect. The pace of change in consumer behavior of youth has increased. They seem too dictating and it engages them, which is the mantra and experience the tantra.

This research identifies a need for a regulatory framework exploring factors and processes that affect exposure of youth to ads on various media. The aim of this study is to identify the need for a uniform regulatory framework and suggest that same in future study.

4.2 Research Hypothesis:

Hypothesis have been framed on eight ethical issues selected for the study. The eight ethical issues chosen for the study are deceptive advertising, sexually suggestive themes, ads targeting youth, material possession, use of women, consumption of unhealthy food, sensitive issues, ads targeting kids. The eight ethical issues have been related to five demographic variables: age, gender, occupation, qualification and family income. A set of three more hypotheses were framed on youth lifestyle, youth values and youth behaviour.

5 ETHICS IN ADVERTISING:

5.1 Evolution of ethics:

Business ethical norms reflect the norms of each historical period. As time passed, those norms evolved, and behaviour that was once generally accepted became objectionable. Business ethics and the resulting behaviour evolved as well. Business was involved in slavery, colonialism, and the cold war.

The term 'business ethics' came into common use in the United States in the early 1970s. By the mid-1980s at least 500 courses in business ethics reached 40,000 students, using some twenty textbooks and at least ten casebooks supported by professional societies, centres and journals of business ethics. The Society for Business Ethics was started in 1980. European business schools adopted business ethics after 1987 commencing with the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN). In 1982 the first single-authored books in the field appeared.

5.2 Laws to regulate Indian advertising:

● Indian penal Code 1860

● The Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1956

● The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950

● The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954

● The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986

● The Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994

● The Transplantation of Human Organ Act 1994

● The Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940

● The Prize Competition Act 1955

● The Motor Vehicles Act 1998

● The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978

● The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003

● The Representation of People Act 1951

● The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995

● Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act 1992

● The Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998

● The Competition Act 2002

● The provisions of Trade Marks Act 1999

Till date advertisement issues are usually taken care of by civil courts in India which are themselves overloaded with pending cases. To provide speedy redressal a uniform code should be made by the legislature.

6 DISCUSSION CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS:

As far as media habits are concerned, the majority of them watch advertisements. Television has emerged as the most popular and successful media for watching advertisements. It is followed by newspapers, internet and social media. Though the gap is too wide between different media, the graph indicates the growing popularity of the internet among young people.

As far as frequency of watching advertisements is concerned, the majority of the respondents watch ads on a daily basis.

Most of them feel that the impact of ads lasts for a day or less over them. Advertising is accused of encouraging materialism and consumption, of stereotyping, of influencing us to purchase products for which we have no need, of taking advantage of children, and even of manipulating our behavior. The purpose of this study was to determine how far the use of deception in ads, sexual suggestive themes, use of women, targeting kids, targeting youth, ads of controversial products, health issues, influence young minds. Specifically, the focus was to see if violation of ethical issues had any impact on young minds which are considered as offensive. The reason behind this study is to better understand the complex ethical issues in advertisements and their relation with transforming youth lifestyle.

Research has proven beyond doubt that ‘attitude-toward-advertising-in general’ is one of the important antecedents of ‘attitude-toward-the- brand’, which, in turn, affects the purchase decision of the vulnerable minds. So, it is suggested that marketers should remain in touch with the expectations, perceptions, and opinions of the public for presenting socially acceptable advertisements before them.

6.1 RECOMMENDATIONS:

As you know business ethics is the application of ethical values in the business world and it is gaining importance day by day. However, during our research we found that advertising companies are using many unethical practices to advertise their products or services, which is really becoming a big problem for the consumers. In today’s advertisements many companies are promoting negative behavior while targeting youth and children. They are also using many advertisement tools like subliminal advertisements, comparative and competitive advertisements in an unethical way to advertise their products. Advertisement is an important source for the marketers to advertise their products hence it is not possible for them to totally quit this source for vanishing the ethical issues. However some steps can be taken to resolve this crucial issue.

Advertisers should keep the following points in their mind while advertising the products of companies:

1. They should only promote the culture of the society in which they are advertising their products.

2. They should give complete information about their products so that consumers can make informed choices.

3. They should not deceive about the features of their products or services.

4. They should not teach negative attitudes and behavior in their ads, especially the ones which are targeting youth and kids.

5. Subliminal advertising tools should not be used to advertise the products of well known brands.

6. Mostly ads try to create a new culture of acquiring goods and commodities to achieve happiness and satisfaction which should be checked.

7. Government agencies, social thinkers and the public should see that in a hurry to achieve luxuries of life, we do not lose our cultural values, tradition and heritage.

8. There is a need for external structure and systems to support and encourage responsible practice in advertising and discourage the irresponsible.

9. Relevant laws need to be made more stringent to provide heavy penalties on the manufacturers of liquor and tobacco products who use surrogate advertisements for promotion of products.

10. Separate courts should be set up to look solely at matters related to advertising in India at local and national levels. Formation of a separate platform for resolving issues related shall make the process more convenient and simpler like fast track courts, tribunals etc.

11. Audiences and advertisers both should be made aware of their rights and duties as a socially responsible citizen.

12. Laws like Indecent representation of women, circulation of obscene content should be put into action by the efforts of the citizens and government both.

13. Advertisements of controversial products should be restricted on media which is watched with the family or during peak hours

The ethical dilemma of advertising has been an issue long debated for, it has been tackled from different areas and different perspectives and yet, no end- result to solve the dispute has been done. In an attempt to moderate the intensity of these Ads in the media; governments; should put more specific rules and regulations on Ads, regarding all its different aspects. Since the current regulations are easy to get around. In addition to that, different countries should put into consideration that despite the fact that the world is becoming one market; still this market exists in different cultures and norms that should be respected and cared for. Therefore, not only governments should apply regulations, but the brand owners themselves as well. Regarding parents, they should be more careful of what their children are watching, and put in mind the phenomenon of “age compression” that has been discussed earlier, control should not only come from the outside, but from the inside as well.

Advertisers and marketers must remain socially conscious of their practices and communication strategies. They must be philanthropic and see the picture in entirety. They must, no matter what, address their social obligations along with their commercial obligations. The call of the hour is to ensure that business and corporate houses build moral and ethical considerations into their public communication. They must make sure that their actions remain pro social and humanistic. Towards this end, they must balance their bottom line and the welfare of the public at large.

7. REFERENCE:

1. Belch George and Belch Michael A and Purani (2010), “Advertising and Promotion’’ Seventh edition, Tata Mc Graw Hill, New Delhi PP 874 – 900

2. Batra Rajeev, Aaker David A.and Myers John G, “Advertising Management’’, (2010), [Hardcover] Pearson Education

3. Chunawala, Sethia, Kumar, Subramaniyam and Suchak, (2008) “Advertising Theory and Practice’’, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai Pp 62 – 86

4. Chunnawalla S. A. (2002),'Advertising, Sales and Promotion Management’, Himalaya Publishing House, New Delhi, pp.158-159.

5. Datta and Datta (2008), “Advertising and Promotion’’, First Edition, Vrinda Publication pp 220 -229

6. Klempner Geoffrey (2004), “Ethics and Advertising” Advertising Ethics: Indian Perspectives Le Magnus University Press 2005 and also in Ethics, Law and Society Volume 2, Jennifer Gunning and Soren Holm Eds., Ashgate2006.

7. Aaker, David A. and Donald E. Bruzzone (1985), “Causes of Irritation in Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 49 (Spring), pp 47-57

8. Abideen, E. P. Sainul and Muraleedharan, K. P. (1998), “Ethical and Social Issues in Advertising.” Abhigyan,16(4),October-December, pp 39-41

9. Austin, M. J. and Reed, M. L. (1999),“Targeting Children Online: Internet Advertising Ethics Issues”,Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16(6),pp 590-602.

10. Barnes, J.H. and M.J. Dotson (1990),"An Exploratory Investigation into the Nature of Offensive Television Advertising", Journal of Advertising, 19 (3), pp 61-69.

11. Beard, F. K. (2008), “How Products and Advertising Offend Consumers”, Journal of Advertising Research, 48(1), pp 13-21.

Received on 07.05.2022 Modified on 27.05.2022

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2022;13(2):96-100.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2022.00016