Ethics - a luxury good in the advertising industry? : A study of advertising ethics in theory and practice

In this interview study I have examined eleven Swedish advertisers and professional communicators and their view of ethics in the advertising industry. The purpose of the study was to shed light on how they see their ethical responsibilites, as well as trying to understand how they reason in regard to ethics as a whole. The main research questions regard the distinction between business and economic responsibilities towards their clients and societal ethical responsibilities, which ethical questions are of importance to them, and how they believe the industry should be regulated. The theoretical framework of the study uses media ethics, social responsibility theory, media accountability theory, and stockholder and stakeholder theory as its base. The study was performed using a qualitative method through interviews and the interpretation of these. The results of the study finds that the consulted advertisers have set opinions of what they themselves would decline to work with for ethical reasons, and has also been able to identify five main categories of ethical issues that they attach great importance to. The advertisers state a strong sense of ethical responsibility, but also that they may have a hard time exercising that sense if their clients offer resistance, as the economical implications of losing a client often is a strong incentive to let the client have their way. The study also found that the advertisers thought the current system of regulation of the industry to be invisible and toothless, and instead they sought more public discussion as a form of regulation. In conclusion I have been able to ascertain that the consulted advertisers have a generally high grade of self-reflection in regards to ethical matters, although they can feel restricted about how well they are able to exercise the responsibility they feel towards society as a whole