D1 Legal and Ethical

Advertisers are expected to show good and honest ads.

Ethical Issues in advertising include

• Advertising harmful products
• Advertising to children
• Unhealthy brand comparisons
• False claims made in ads
• Ads in poor taste

Don't make any false claims or exaggerate your product in ads. Don't use false statistics.

Legal and Ethical Issues

Introduction

In this report I will address the legal and ethical issues that I need to consider when creating my advertisement campaign for my energy drink (Lotus) and any implications that could be caused by not considering legal and ethical issues. I will go over each issue and state what it is, the problems it could cause, and how I will avoid this issue to ensure my campaign has no issues. 

Copyright

Copyright is a legal term describing ownership of control of the rights to the use and distribution of certain works of creative expression. Copyright is one of the main types of intellectual property and provides a level of protection and compensation for the creator's investment of time, effort, and creativity in their published material.

With my advertisement campaign, I have to ensure that I do not steal or copy anyone's intellectual property and implement it into my own work. An example of doing this would be stealing a logo off of another company or using a licensed image in my work that I don't have permissions to use. If I wanted to implement somebody else's work into my own advertisement campaign I would have to gain permission from them so that I am not stealing and therefore cannot be accused of copyright infringement. Being accused of copyright is extremely bad for your brand because you will most likely have to pay a fine for the intellectual property you stole and this would also negatively affect your reputation as your customers would be made aware of how your brand is not original and they would not want to buy from an untrustworthy brand, which could ultimately be the downfall of your brand as a whole. This is why it is imperative that I ensure that I do not steal or use anybody else's work in my advertisements to avoid this issue; for example, I cannot go onto Google images and take a random photo off of there and use it in my own advertisements. I am certain that my logo and my slogan are not similar to any other brands and therefore my brand is not at risk of copyright. 

Permission (Model & Location) 

For my advertisement campaign I have to obtain permission from any models I may use to create my advertisements and I also need permission if I decide to film on somebody else's property. I have to get permission from any models I work with because they are a part of the production process and therefore I have to ask them to work with me. I cannot force anybody to work on my campaign if they do not want to as that would be extremely immoral and would cause a multitude of implications because nobody would want to support a brand who exploits their personnel, this would also go against my morals as it is clearly the wrong thing to do and if I required models for my advertisements I would ensure that I ask for their permission.

Furthermore, I need to obtain permission if I film on somebody else's property. This is imperative because it can cause issues if I fail to do this. Whatever location I decide to film in, no matter how public it seems, it is likely that I will have to ask for permission because the impact of not asking for permission can be detrimental to my campaign. For example, if I decide to film in a public space without asking for permission it could cause disturbances for the local community and this could even result in the police having to interfere with my filming if I refused to stop filming or leave the property. I will ensure that no matter where I decide to film, I will research into who I have to ask permission from to make sure that I am not breaching any legal or ethical issues and that my filming does not create any problems for anyone. 

Royalties

Royalties are payments for the sales or use of intellectual property. Royalty refers to a contractual payment by a person for the use of assets belonging to another person; the payment includes royalty for the use of intangible assets, such as copyrights, trademarks, or franchise model agreements. 

This means that if I wanted to use somebody's intellectual property in my advertising campaign, I would have to pay them for the right to use it. The right to receive a royalty arises when someone uses another person's copyrighted work, often under the terms of a licensing agreement. If I decided to use another person's copyright protected intellectual property without paying them a royalty it could result in a fine, therefore I am going to guarantee that I am not going to use anybody else's intellectual property but if I decided to I would make sure to pay them a royalty to avoid any legal complications.

Offensive

When making my advertisement campaign I have to make certain that when I am developing the advertisements on software like Adobe Photoshop that I do not include any content that could be deemed offensive. I will have to ensure that the advertisements I produce do not cause offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age. 

An example of an advertisement that contained offensive material is a Booking.com advert that caused ASA to receive nearly 2,500 complaints because people claimed that the continued use of the word 'booking' was used in place of an expletive. It was heavily complained about because the public thought that the advert would promote swearing to children and make them more likely to say the word that 'booking' was in place of. 

Language/Behaviour

Language/Behaviour legal and ethical issues are a part of the offensive material that could detrimentally affect my brand if I include any language or behaviour issues in my advertisements like explicit and rude words. If I included content like this in my advertisements it would result in the ASA investigating my advertisement and they could take it down because advertisements with explicit words in can affect children and sets a very bad example for them and my advertisements would receive a lot of complaints. It is evident that adverts with inappropriate language in receive the most complaints as according to the ASA the one of the most complained about adverts in history was the Booking.com advert that I mentioned beforehand. This is why it is imperative that I ensure that I do not include any language or behaviour in my ads that is likely to offend anybody to avoid this issue as it could cause the downfall of my brand. 

An example of an advertisement that got banned due to explicit language or behaviour is the Tesco Mobile ads which used food items like Shiitake mushrooms and Pistachio nuts in place of an expletive. Tesco Mobile used sentences that are commonly used with an expletive but changed the expletives for 'pistachio' and 'shiitake'. However, it is clear what the intentions were behind this advertisement and a lot of members of the public were outraged and complained about the advertisement due to it being inappropriate.

Violence

Including violence in your advertisements is generally a bad idea, this is because it creates an aggressive image for your brand and your advert could affect children if they see it. Without a doubt, using violence to promote my energy drink that is supposed to have a natural and healthy image would not be a good idea. This is for a multitude of reasons, one being that if the violence is too explicit it could result in my advert being taken down. Another reason is that violence usually appeals to men more than women, therefore if I use any kind of violence in my adverts it would most likely attract a male demographic however my target audience in young women and I do not want to deter them from being interested in my brand by including graphic violence in it. 

An advert that included violence was an NHS anti-smoking advert that featured people getting dragged to a store by a fish hook to highlight how they are hooked on cigarettes and that it is harming them. The advertisement was not well received because many members of the public found the image of a fish hook attached to someone's face distressing and especially distressing to children. This resulted in the restriction of the advert being shown in or around children's programs.

Representation

In my campaign, I have to be certain that I represent everyone accurately and that I do not represent people in anyway which could cause offense or outrage. In the past, a lot of advertisements have received backlash for misrepresenting a minority group or representing a group of people in a way that is simply untrue or offensive. I do not want my brand 'Lotus' to receive any backlash for my advertisements, for that reason I will ensure that I represent everyone fairly in my adverts and If I decided to represent anybody in my advert I will do research beforehand to make sure I am representing them accordingly and not creating something that could offend others and negatively affect my brand.