The vegetable soup was chock full of good things to eat. Unfortunately,
the good things were at the bottom of the bowl, invisible. The
photographer for the print ad, however, had a novel solution:
He put marbles in the bowl, forcing the veggies to the surface.
No one saw a problem with the sleight of hand, and thus was born
one of the classics of deceptive advertising. The Federal Trade
Commission filed and won a lawsuit, and Campbell Soup Company
was left with egg on its face.
Why would an advertising agency produce such a deceitful ad?
Apparently, according to a recent study in the Journal of
Advertising, most advertising agency executives don't think
twice about the ethical implications of their work.
When Patrick Murphy, Notre Dame professor of marketing, and
Minnette Drumwright of the University of Texas interviewed more
than 50 advertising executives in 29 agencies they found that
most failed to see potential ethical problems in their work. This
"moral myopia," as the researchers termed it, meant the executives
rarely discussed ethical issues among themselves, resulting in
"moral muteness."
Agency executives rationalized their suspension of ethical judgment
by separating personal beliefs from business decisions. They also
were unwilling to contradict clients, believed ethical considerations
lead to bland, inferior ads, and feared raising one ethical issue
would open a Pandora's box of other ethical issues.
Murphy, who is a co-director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethical
Business Worldwide, points out that blindness to ethics is not
unique to advertising or marketing. "Indeed, the recent round
of corporate scandals suggest that moral myopia and moral muteness
are apparent in many industries," he and Drumwright observe in
their journal article.
(October 2004)
