Are you guilty of Unethical Marketing Behaviours?

3 Marketing Conducts that you should be aware of and avoid

So what deems marketing practices as “unethical”, you may ask?

Ethics have been, for many years a debatable topic and issue faced in work places around the world. With today’s technological advancements and evolution of the internet, more people are misusing and exploiting various digital mediums to false advertise or campaign their products for extra income. These unethical behaviours are not just being performed by companies but also by influencers you may follow. In this blog post, I will be sharing with you 3 unethical practices by marketers, coupled with some real-life examples of people you may recognise who have been scamming you... So keep on reading!

1. Misleading advertising

Under the protocol for Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it states that companies must display “truth in advertising”. This means that statements or claims made of the product they are advertising or campaigning for must be of reasonable truth, and when possible, supported with scientific evidence (Forbes.com, 2017).

Misleading advertisements are more than just unethical practices, they are illegal. However, it is difficult to curb such practices, especially when companies delve into the grey area. For instance, it is generally common for advertisers to exaggerate some features and downplay others when selling a product to accentuate the benefits and attractiveness of the product. This is where the line gets a bit blurry hence in order to distinguish between an ethical company from one that is not, claims must be held justifiable.

Let me give you a throwback and show you some old school examples I came across while researching about false advertising. The Tobacco industry has come a long way in its marketing efforts and strategies with its long history of campaigning. Here are 2 of the most intriguing examples I could find.

Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike’s advertisements communicated numerous false claims suggesting that toasted cigarettes are less harmful to consumer’s throat and can reduce coughing. They also went on to claim that their products could lead to noticeable weight loss, with their campaign slogan in 1930 reading “When tempted to over-indulge, reach for a Lucky instead”. Following this period, a worrying research done by London’s King College revealed a triple in the number of lung cancer in females over the next 30 years. This trend in disease was traced back to the people’s smoking habits 3-4 decades earlier. (Healthcare Administration, n.d.)

Camel Cigarettes manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

In 1933, R. J. Reynolds released an ad campaign for Camel cigarettes which was aimed at Lucky Strikes “It’s Toasted” campaign, as talked about earlier on. From this poster, Camel insinuated that Lucky Strike ads were out to fool their consumers with false claims, countering their competitor’s advertisements with “No Tricks, Just Costlier Tobaccos”. Ironically, this was a claim that was later contested FTC as inaccurate, false and misleading.

Moving forward, the FTC charged most of the renowned cigarette manufacturers with cease-and-desist orders for misleading and false advertising, R.J. Reynolds with no exception. (Tobacco.stanford.edu, n.d.)

2. Developing Black-hat links

We all know that media exposure is one of the most beneficial strategies for businesses to grow. And yes, we can’t deny that getting inbound links to your company’s website would be the only best way to boost your organic search rankings. While there are ways to do so ethically like authentic reviews or guest postings producing high-quality content for your target audience about the product, many companies choose to do it the “black-hat” way to fake results and just so they could stinge on some costs and time. To name a few black-hat link building techniques would be, using anonymous accounts to spam other user’s comment section, forum threads, or even taking things to another level by hacking websites to place self-serving links. Below is a table to illustrate ethical versus unethical online marketing etiquette.

(Act-On Blog, 2017)

3. Insensitive controversy

An adequate example of this would be the case of Circles.Life’s recent “Hungry for more data” campaign which struck the internet with distaste. As much as such creative and non-conventional advertising content is a good way to venture into a disruptive marketing campaign, it is definitely a risky route.

Being bold in marketing is an crucial leap of faith marketers have to take in order to set them apart from competitors and deem their campaign as a success. Stirring up a little healthy controversy can be an effective way to garner more attention- by voicing out a unpopular opinion could cultivate a buzz among your viewers. However, taking the easy way out and venturing into controversial issues haphazardly could most likely take a spiteful turn against your brand's image.

(AsiaOne, 2017)

In a interview with Marketing and creative director Farrokh Madon, she highlighted that “One isn’t necessary to live, the other is. It really trivialises a serious issue – Hunger – and shows insensitivity towards unfortunate hungry people”. When it comes to serious global related issues in advertising, Madon added that it wasn't about whether the brand should take the issue but rather what they do with it as this is what shows the brand's character. (Marketing Interactive, 2018)

Thank you for reading this lengthy blog post! Hope you managed to read it through and learn a thing or two about Marketing ethics (without falling asleep that is! haha)

Till next time,

- Megan Ng

References

• Forbes.com. (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2017/05/17/5-common-unethical-marketing-practices-are-you-guilty/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].

• Healthcare Administration. (n.d.). 10 Evil Vintage Cigarette Ads Promising Better Health – Healthcare Administration Degree Programs. [online] Available at: https://www.healthcare-administration-degree.net/10-evil-vintage-cigarette-ads-promising-better-health/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].

• Tobacco.stanford.edu. (n.d.). Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising. [online] Available at: http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st130.php&token1=fm_img3799.php&theme_file=fm_mt011.php&theme_name=Psychological%20Exploits&subtheme_name=It [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].

• Act-On Blog. (2017). The History of Spam in Marketing. [online] Available at: https://www.act-on.com/blog/the-history-of-spam-in-marketing/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].

• Marketing Interactive. (2018). Circles.Life responds to controversy over “Hungry for more data” ads. [online] Available at: https://www.marketing-interactive.com/circles-life-responds-to-controversy-over-hungry-for-more-data-ads/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].

• AsiaOne. (2017). Circles.Life responds to controversial ad campaign said to trivialise poverty. [online] Available at: http://www.asiaone.com/singapore/circleslife-responds-controversial-ad-campaign-said-trivialise-poverty [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].