This blog post will reflect and elaborate the issues and ideas that William Dorr raised in his Marketing blog post “Subliminal Marketing Author”: https://blogs.ubc.ca/willdorr/.
Surprisingly, I have thought about the ethics of subliminal marketing over the past few years after i developed an interest for the marketing industry. Many advertisers would probably say it is a strategic method in order to sell their product and their brand.
Perhaps subliminal marketing may sound slightly sneaky and dishonest. The level of subliminal effect most likely differ on the product and how it is delivered. I think that there are acceptable level of subliminal marketing and unacceptable levels of subliminal marketing. And by varied acceptability of subliminal marketing by different levels, I meant the intentions behind the marketing strategy determines the level of a specific subliminal effects either ethical or unethical.
Say that there was an advertisement about a chocolate bar. If it subliminally gives the impression that it has special effects that it does not have and the marketers are fully aware of this, this would be unethical.
On the other hand, if under a limited time frame, markers were asked to some how deliver all of the wonderful elements and features of a product and that marketers could not use explicit methods in delivering the benefits that come along with the product, then it is ethical, in my opinion, to use subliminal to deliver sufficient information to the consumers so they can make a purchasing decision.