An advertiser is required to produce advertisements to market and promote the products of the company for which they are employed. The advertising medium can be print, electronic or the most current medium, social networks. However, it is not easy to advertise any product or service and there is a great responsibility to follow a series of guidelines and requirements that apply to the entire advertising industry.
It is the responsibility of each advertiser to ensure that the ads they produce are in line with marketing ethics and that viewers’ sentiments are taken into account during the idea generation and production phases of the promotional video, print ad, or media. social. media campaign. Due attention must be paid to social sensitivities to avoid any mass backlash after the launch of the campaign.
There are a number of social issues that tend to arouse strong feelings if presented in the wrong way. These include problems related to social, cultural or racial discrimination, gender bias, as well as problems related to mental and physical health. The scope of social sensitivities also covers explicit content and censorship issues. A marketer’s responsibility is to avoid attracting negative feedback from ad viewers while respecting the unmentioned boundaries of all of the aforementioned social sensitivities.
Social, cultural or racial discrimination refers to highlighting the differences between social classes, or different cultures and races, also inappropriately. It is an advertiser’s responsibility to ensure that the work that he produces together with his team should promote equality and should not encourage differences that exist in society but are unhealthy. Making one social class, culture or race seem more preferred or important compared to others can hurt people’s feelings and also make social situations worse, as it can provoke a lot of debate and possibly lead to widespread protests from the masses. . Such a situation will naturally damage the reputation of the company that came up with such an advertisement.
It is important that advertisers are aware of their responsibility to minimize gender bias. If they are not able to contribute to reducing the perceived precedence that boys/men have over girls/women in patriarchal societies, they should at least not allow themselves to make such notions seem like acceptable norms that do not need to be changed, until later. motivated.
When it comes to issues related to mental and physical health, it is the advertiser’s responsibility to spread awareness of such issues and avoid portraying people with health issues as socially inept. They can highlight the challenges disabled people face in a positive way and show scenarios that give them confidence, but advertisers must respect the feelings of people with physical or mental disabilities and refrain from showing contempt or insensitivity to their plight.
The most important responsibility of an advertiser is to make sure that the ads produced by him and his team are not immoral or indecent in any way. The clothes worn by the models, as well as their behavior and choice of words, must respect local standards regarding decency. Any explicit content should be discreetly censored so that the meaning of the ad is not vague.
If an advertiser is aware of each of the mentioned aspects, then they will be fulfilling their responsibility to be an ethical advertiser. Taking full responsibility for respecting social sensibilities will ensure that the advertiser produces quality campaigns. This, in turn, will create a positive image of the advertising agency and its clients, which is the main goal of an advertiser.
