Advertising professionals constantly face situations where they have to evaluate alternate options regarding advertising content and policy. Often, the choice becomes difficult due to the sheer number of factors that require consideration. The relative importance of any influencing factor varies depending on the dynamics of the specific situation at hand. Thus, to deal effectively with a broad range of situations every day, the advertising professional develops rules of thumb that simplify the decision-making process.

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	Experience teaches the advertising professional that while the standard of creative work is the most important factor in building and retaining a career, litigation over deceptive advertising is a sure way to ruin one.

These rules of thumb rely on a single dominant consideration that influences advertising decisions in most situations. The factor that an advertising professional chooses as the dominant consideration in his or her decision making depends upon his or her age/professional experience and individual ethical orientation.

Research shows that the factors that usually influence an advertising professional's decision making can be categorized as external or internal.

External factors include:

• legal factors such as laws and regulations
• economic factors such as business/performance outcomes
• corporate factors such as rules and regulations
• general industry considerations such as professional codes of conduct
• interpersonal considerations such as peer, client, or superior approval

The internal factors together make up the individual advertising professional's ethical orientation and include:

• values or internalized social norms
• memories of personal experiences
• level of ethical development

An article based on research by Joel J. Davis entitled "Ethics in Advertising Decision Making: Implications for Reducing the Incidence of Deceptive Advertising" and published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs in 1994, states that in decision making:

• the oldest and most experienced advertising professionals were primarily guided by ethical considerations,
• middle management was primarily influenced by legal considerations, and
• the youngest and least experienced advertising professionals were guided by anticipated economic outcomes of business/performance.

The reasons for these findings are not very difficult to posit.

The professional sees advertising as part of the promotional component in the marketing mix and focused on realizing marketing objectives. These objectives are usually realized in terms of return on investment. Therefore, the young professional expects successful advertising to reflect achievements in the marketplace. Coupled with the acceptance of such economic yardsticks are the young professional's basic insecurities related to lack of experience, a new job, and a yearning to be successful in the organization. It comes as no surprise, then, that the young advertising professional often worries less about legal and ethical considerations than he or she does about marketing successes or failures.

Spending more time on the job teaches the advertising professional that marketing successes and failures can depend on a great number of factors and circumstances that fall outside the periphery of advertising. And while it is nearly impossible to measure the influence of advertising on sales, the only tangible or measurable criteria of advertising are things like recall, positive associations, or recognition. These depend directly upon the standards of creativity. Experience also teaches the advertising professional that while the standard of creative work is the most important factor in building and retaining a career, litigation over deceptive advertising is a sure way to ruin one.

The advertising professional, therefore, becomes cautious by the time he or she reaches middle management, and legal considerations become the dominant influence on his or her decisions with respect to advertising content and policy. It takes further experience and age to understand that the law often changes, and it is not sufficient to be technically correct in following the letter of the law. Advertisements that otherwise seem innocuous and have been created innocently may still create consumer confusion and end up in court accused of being deceptive. When an armor of adherence to legal rules is used unethically to cover intentional deception, chinks are eventually exposed.

The professional reaches the top by learning that the safest path when making decisions regarding advertising content and policy is the ethical one. Decisions that follow established standards of ethics rarely conflict with the law, for the law has evolved from the same norms and values that have set the ethical standards in society. A successful career in advertising can be built and sustained only by ethical creativity. Any digression, whether intentional or unintentional, can mean the loss of a career.

Work Cited

Davis, Joel J. "Ethics in Advertising Decision Making: Implications for Reducing the Incidence of Deceptive Advertising." Journal of Consumer Affairs 28, no. 2 (1994).

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