I believe that current model of online advertising, on a scale of one to ten is about a three and a half. Just using one example here on this very broad topic, YouTube. YouTube has been actively been trying to change their ad cents policy on many family vlogging (video bloggers) channels in order to protect children after there were a couple cases of child welfare in danger, a specific example being the channel, FamilyOFive. FamilyOFive is known for prankster parents playing tricks on their kids on video and uploading it to their shared family channel. Things went a little too far for viewers liking so the channel was reported and further removed after review. These videos often showed the kids crying or in distress, which violates the YouTube guidelines. YouTube agreed that their videos should no longer be creating money for fund the parents for their children’s distress. In the parents defense, they said everything was planned and was all acting but there has been minimal proof that. Feel free to look further into this because it would be hard to cover all sides in just one post so I am giving the best Sparks Notes version I can. Here is a video helping explain the situation. The current understanding is fewer ads will appear on kids content (or content involving minors) because majority of advertisers are not kid friendly. Kids are very impressionable especially under the age of 13 which is the legal age to have a YouTube channel (even though you can access videos without an account). I gave this score I did because this is an issue that has not been sorted out yet, but is in progress of creating a safer and honest ad policies, therefore a happy median score. I think there is a lot room for improvement of honesty, I think we all often see false advertising to trick the consumer.
I found a great article (Links to an external site.) speaking about the differences between ethical and unethical practices of advertising and thought it would be a great addition to the reading we had this past week.The two parts the stuck out to me throughout the article were the need to promote the products distinction, showing why this product is unique will help the consumer identify it. Doing this unethically would be like creating knock-off products and trying to pass them for the one that is trying to be imitated. This next part is my favorite, when advertising you should be socially conscious, they speak on a topic called, “ hot button issues” I think people often forget to do this and especially with how sensitive everyone is we need to be extra careful not offend anyone, especially when they are not the target market. There is such thing as bad publicity!
Code of Ethics:
- Share truth and high ethical standards- unless stated otherwise, things should be played by bias.
- Hold the company ethics to the ad, and demonstrate them accordingly.
- Ads should targeted towards the right target market especially when dealing with products/campaigns targeted by those who need to reach a certain age to partake or purchase said product. Aka be appropriate.
- Never compromise a consumers privacy or private information.
- If paid promotion is being taken place that should be obviously disclosed within in the ad.
- Never put anyone in danger through an ad, if anything it should just be promoting good.
- Just be a good person, think of things you would want advertised to your kids, you only want the best for them. (Unless you are advertising some above legal age product).
- Be environmentally conscious!
