Central Moral Problem Connected with Advertising Literature review - 2

Central Moral Problem Connected with Advertising - Literature review Example The past president of US, Thomas Jefferson has said that â€Å"Advertisements contain the only truth to rely on a newspaper† and a noted British author H. G. Wells saw â€Å"advertising as legalized lying.† (Azcuenaga,1997). These two views are contradictory to each other and actually, since long back, there are different perceptions and views about advertising. Moral Problems and Advertising: There are many examples of unethical tactics by advertisers used for various business gains and let us consider one example where you reach a store through viewing an ad and as soon as you reach store you get a message that all the items have been sold out and you are offered an inferior product at the same price or at an increased price. So this is clearly an example of an unethical technique using misdirection and deception (Ethics in advertising, 2001). Advertising is a big business and millions of pounds are spent on it every month and therefore some companies try all sorts of tactics and sometimes these tactics might be illegal or immoral (Ethics in advertising, 2001). Unfortunately, in today’s world, it is becoming more and more morally degraded. In today’s advertising use of pornography, use of women models, the hype about the business and business autonomy has become more important than to lure the customers. Use of women in advertising: Images of female bodies are everywhere and women and their body parts sell everything from food to cars (Beauty and body images in the media, n.d.). Now in the today’s advertising new and younger, taller and thinner females are being portrayed and various women magazines are advertising various weight loss ads urging that anyone can lose twenty pounds (Beauty and body images in the media, n.d.).