Good Advertising

1.0 Introduction

In the modern world, advertising is currently one of the most pervasive and powerful phenomena where it is an important persuasive force that influences the mentality and behavior of customers. With advertising being pervasive, it shapes social, economic and ethical influence towards our lifestyle, culture, consumption and choices (Cuza, A. I., 2015).

According to Nooh, M. N. (n.d.), with advertising being one of the main tools in promoting their products and services, organizations all around the world promotes their products and services by providing information regarding the products and services to customers globally. Advertisements could be carried out by television, radio, newspaper, magazines, direct mail, outdoor advertising, buyer’s guide, flyers, pamphlets, brochures, booklets, transit advertising, etc. Hence, with the wide range of advertising channels to choose from, selecting the correct media to carry out the advertisement could be the most important decision to make (Mamoon, Z., 2014, April).

A good advertising is an advertising that should not deceive the public by providing false information and by withholding relevant information the truth shall not be altered. Hence, providing a positive impact on the society (Cuza, A. I., 2015). Furthermore, Jain, A. (2010) states that a good advertisement can be creative, logical and innovative. However, it can’t be an exaggeration of facts and information. Exaggerated advertising should be avoided by maintaining a high level of self-regulation as it can cause it to be misleading. Based on International Charter (2015), a company should also be concerned regarding the social responsibility by avoiding any form of discriminations in advertising.

Based on BusinessCaseStudies.com (2015), business ethics is a study of proper business policies and practices. Business ethics refers to a form of professional ethics, which examines ethical problems in a business environment where it is applied in all aspects of a business conduct. It also serves as a moral principle that guides the way a business behaves and makes decisions.

We have chosen McDonald’s as the company for our assignment. Ray Kroc founded McDonald’s back in 1955 and after merely 3 years, McDonald’s managed to sell its 100 millionth hamburger. Till this day, it is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across the world with 36,538 outlets (McDonalds.com., 2016). McDonald’s is well known and there are many advertisements on McDonald’s worldwide. However, there are also several cases regarding their ethical issues regarding their advertising. Therefore, we would like to gain a better understanding regarding the ethical issues and evaluate the issues using the theories of ethics.