The approaches of communication students to advertising ethics

It can be said that advertisements, which play a prominent role in the maintenance of the general socioeconomic system and have the potential to shape the view of life of people from all walks of life, have been greatly influenced by the revolutionary changes brought about by digital technologies and Web 2.0, which can be described as the new dimension of the internet. Traditional advertising channels have been replaced by the online ones, so brands have access to advertising opportunities that they never had before. However, it can be also argued that this change works for the benefit of companies rather than consumers, and brands are starting to gradually encircle people from every angle. When this situation is combined with some legal gaps and the somewhat uncontrolled nature of the digital environment, new ethical problems may arise. It can be asserted that the new social and interactive internet platforms bring unique abilities to advertisers, who play a leading role in the design of advertisements as well as brands. Because of the emergence of new advertising channels, advertisements designed by them started to influence the life of society much more than before. So, it can be said that their ethical responsibilities have increased. In this context, considering that the ethical understanding of a person can directly or indirectly guide his or her actions, the students of the public relations and advertising department, who are the advertising professionals of the future, and likely to shape the advertising industry, and whose voice have not been heard as much as the other stakeholders of the industry, are asked some questions about the main issues of advertising ethics within the scope of the research. By doing so, it is aimed to obtain some information on their ethical perceptions. In the first part of the thesis, the concept of ethics and some basic ethical issues are discussed, and the historical development of marketing ethics is overviewed. After talking about the traditional marketing techniques and the criticisms brought to them, new ethical problems that globalization and digital technologies, which are interrelated with each other, have caused or can cause in marketing activities are discussed through examples, and some suggestions are made. In the second part, the ethical problems in advertising are examined more specifically; after mentioning the concept of integrated marketing communication and the changing nature of advertisements, the most common advertising techniques and types are examined in the context of the subject, and a general ethical discussion is carried out through various cases. Finally, a general framework is drawn before the research part by talking about the possible ethical problems that may arise in the business processes of agencies and in the relationship between brands and advertisers. In the third part of the thesis, after briefly reviewing the advertising ethics literature, the importance of the study, its purpose, questions, method, possible limitations, sample, how the data is collected and analyzed, the findings obtained from the research are presented according to their main themes and introduced with various comments and quotations. The questionnaire is prepared in a semi-structured way in order to examine the opinions of the participants on the most frequently addressed issues in the advertising ethics literature. Research questions that also constitute the analysis frameworks are, what they think about the basic ethical discussions, what basic qualities they attribute to the advertisement, what they think about the manipulative elements used in advertisements, what their opinions are about the new advertising techniques brought by digital technologies, whether they think brands have environmental and social responsibilities, products or services that they find objectionable to advertise, their views on children's exposure to advertisements, how they think women and minority cultures are represented in advertisements, their opinions about the sexual elements used in advertisements, their views on potential ethical issues that may arise in advertising agencies' business processes, and how they consider the role that ethics play in the courses they take. In line with the purpose of the study, since the participants' thought processes on ethical issues are tried to be understood, the in-depth interview technique, a qualitative research method, which is thought to allow this, is applied online with the Microsoft Teams software, and the data is collected at first hand. A total of 16 people, 2 female and 2 male students from each class are interviewed at Galatasaray University Faculty of Communication, which provides 4-year undergraduate education. Thus, it is aimed to establish an equivalence in the sample and ensure equality in the representation. By conducting the field study, that is carried out in the context of research questions, it is intended to minimize the number of strategic variables with the purposeful sampling method, so the whole sample is selected from Galatasaray University Public Relations and Advertising students. In this way, it is predicted that more valid findings could be acquired about the general tendencies of the students in the department. After the obtained data as a result of the interviews is deciphered, they are grouped under the predetermined analysis frameworks with the descriptive analysis method in order to be better understood, and the most recurring patterns in the answers given by the participants are determined. According to the findings of the study, it can be said that some participants do not make a definite distinction between the concepts of ethics and morality, while others make a general distinction between the two concepts somehow. On the contrary, the difference between ethics and law is quite obvious to many. Also, the participants cannot reach a general judgment about the universality of ethical principles. Most participants associate unethicality with the nature of advertisements and find this situation normal. In addition, the participants think that advertisements encourage materialism in the society, and that some advertisements can be misunderstood if they are not adapted to the cultural norms of the society they are addressing. It is also observed that some participants are uncomfortable with the advertisements they frequently encounter, they do not emphasize the role that advertising activities play in the general functioning of the economy. While some participants do not approve of the emotional elements used for sales purposes in advertisements, they consider it reasonable to use such elements in the advertisements aimed at social benefit. Many participants find it necessary for brands to run corporate social responsibility themed advertising campaigns, but some argue that attributing social missions to advertisements would distract them from their commercial purposes. Regarding the problems that digital technologies may pose in the context of advertising ethics, the participants who can be described as skeptical suggest that personalization activities used in the design of advertisements may endanger the personal privacy of individuals, while others with a more moderate perspective underline the potential advantages that these activities can provide to consumers. In the same vein, some participants are skeptical of the use of social media posts shared by personal users in advertisements without their consent, while others do not see a problem with such cases, as they think that these posts have an anonymous nature. Also, it can be said that there is a negative view among the participants about the advertising activities of "influencers". It can be asserted that the participants are very sensitive about the representation of different cultures. Regarding stereotyping, some participants find this situation problematic, while others state that they have to use various stereotypes in order to be easily perceived. While many participants think that women are portrayed with a sexist and patriarchal point of view in advertisements, some claim that men are also harmed by this, although not as much as women. As for the inclusion of sexual and LGBTQ+ items in advertisements, some participants take a conservative stance and worry that such items may not appeal to all segments of the society, while others adopt a more liberal perspective and see no harm in using such items to a certain extent. While the majority agree on banning cigarette advertisements due to health-related reasons, they also state that bans on alcoholic beverage advertisements stem from political purposes. The issue on which the participants reach the broadest consensus is the relationship between children and advertisements. Many of them imply that because children do not yet have cognitive maturity, they are much more likely to be deceived by advertisements than adults. On the issue of advertiser and agency relations, some participants find the dominant role played by advertiser brands in the design processes of advertisements unethical and argue that this unequal relationship gives brands great power. Regarding the agency's own business processes, many participants state that due to their financial conditions, they can take part in the design of an advertisement that they consider unethical, while they would not take part in an agency that constantly conducts unethical activities. While some participants argue that they should take ethical courses from the very beginning of their education in the department, some think that it is sufficient to include ethics in the specific context of every course. In addition, it is observed that the general knowledge of the participants on the literature of advertising ethics increase as the grade level increase, and it can also be asserted that especially the first graders' answers to the questions are not based on theoretical training. Keywords: Marketing Ethics, Advertising Ethics, Business Ethics