“Impossible is nothing”, “You can”, “Think different”, etc. I believe the majority of us have ever heard of these famous advertising slogans more or less. Indeed, It is the reality that Advertising is all pervasive in daily life. However, at the moment we are dazzled by advertisements, an increasing number of companies are designing creative advertisements to attract customers’ eyes. It’s inevitable to have competitions among different industries, and advertisement will be used as a power tool to crush competitors. That is sometimes irritating and even offensive, which would result in ethical problem in marketing.

Google V.S. Microsoft, Apple V.S. Samsung, Nike V.S. Adidas, these are leading companies and major competitors from different fields. We would commonly see these companies belittle opponent in order to raise their own reputation. However, it becomes more sensitive when it comes to advertisement. Take Pepsi and Coke Cola for example. These two well-known soft-drink companies are competing and seizing the market worldwide. They are very anxious to kick each other out of the market. Therefore, we can see Coca-Cola design vicious and false advertising to attack Pepsi (Glovin & Stanford, 2009); we can find banned Pepsi commercial (Bellaboteborg, 2006) due to its discrimination. These advertisements might be entertaining and informative, and the news might boost the exposure rates, it will bring harmful consequences to both companies and customers.

In my opinion, advertising is supposed to be designed to make customers understand, persuade them to think and then act on their ads, then this will lead to positive results and the ad may not be called unethical. As a result, ads satisfy customers and bring benefits to companies.

watch?v=LM9rA4LbOMc&feature=player_detailpage

Picture:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/sydneystoneman/2010/09/23/coke-vs-pepsi-the-great-cola-wars/

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM9rA4LbOMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KObDkEBwuTc

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYXGQIH6Hisk