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In the competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to advertisers, communicators find themselves tempted—in fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly—to set aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality, taw-
driness and moral squalor.5
9. Some forms of advertisements put more emotional pressure on a targeted group
than is warranted. Products that promote hygiene or safety are commendable, but
often the objective can be reached by means other than use of the particular prod-
uct advertised. It is especially abhorrent when the makers of formula milk suggest to
inhabitants of developing countries that their children will be less healthy if they are
breast-fed. The reverse is generally the case, not just because of the natural antibiotic
content of the initial breast-feeding and of the natural regulation of fat content in the
milk as the baby grows but also because of the unsanitary water supplies in so many
developing countries.
10. General cultural attitudes are shaped, as well as followed, by advertising. Think
of the amount of mental space taken up by the thousands of messages assaulting our
minds every day. Earlier generations memorized poetry and songs, but in the latter
half of the twentieth century, commercial jingles came to populate the minds of peo-
ple by sheer force of repetition; for example, the soft drink company slogans “Things
go better with Coke” and “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” became an anthem in
commercials that showed choirs of children of many cultures singing to bring peace
to the world through drinking the product. The jingle appears to have become less
fashionable in the twenty-first century, though musical phrases embedded in Subway’s
“Five Dollar Foot Long” video commercials carry on the tradition. The objection in
the case of these and other jingles and slogans is that they take up permanent residence
in one’s mind in the place of more important and significant thoughts.6 Since the com-
puter era, distinctive sounds, the auditory equivalent of visual logos, have come to be
used in some commercials. These auditory cues, much shorter than jingles, have come
punningly to be called “earcons” in analogy to visual icons (or eye-cons).
Some advertisements are in deplorable taste, such as those making fun of religion.
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” has been used to advertise milk, leading one to wonder what
right advertisers have to tarnish such a venerable cultural legacy. Others encourage
promiscuity, such as condom advertisements for those who “get lucky a lot.” This car-
ries an underlying message that those who don’t get sex are unlucky when in fact they
may have many other exciting and wonderful things filling their lives. Many advertise-
ments appeal to power and domination, whether men over women or women over
men. Products are sometimes marketed on the basis that they will improve the power
of the purchaser to attract and use another for sexual or status gratification. Such
appeals are not conducive to socially harmonious relations. However, there are other
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advertisements that do appeal to the socially valuable relationships of love, respect, compassion, and friendship (sending flowers or greeting cards, making cell phone
calls, etc.).
Efforts have been made with some success to combat the most pernicious forms
of advertising. In Canada, legislation exists under the Competition Act to prohibit
misleading advertising. In addition, a system of voluntary controls and guidelines has
been set up under Advertising Standards Canada/Les Normes canadiennes de la pub-
licité (formerly the Canadian Advertising Foundation/Le Conseil des Normes de la
Publicité), which drew up and enforces a Canadian Code of Advertising Standards
and Gender Portrayal Guidelines. Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) began as the
Canadian Advertising Advisory Board (CAAB) in 1957. Its stated purpose is “to foster
the ethical practice of advertising.” The CAAB published the first Canadian Code of
Advertising Standards in 1963, and ASC has periodically made some changes to it. The
Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) adheres to that code and related guide-
lines as well as to the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children and the Code for
Broadcast Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages. These are administered by ASC.7 The
Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children is published by the CAB in cooperation
with ASC and is used to clear for use an advertisement before it is aired. The CAB
involvement with setting and enforcing broadcasting standards continues despite a
major restructuring in 2010 that involved significant redefinition of its mandate. If an
advertisement is found to be in violation of the code or guidelines, the various media
and companies that participate in the control system must refuse to prepare or carry it
in its objectionable form as a condition of their participation.
In the version of the code currently available on ASC’s website there are 14
clauses.8 In early years, complaints against the Clause 1 provision concerning accuracy
and clarity easily dominated in the number of upheld complaints. For example, in
1984 (the year is arbitrarily chosen), there were 55 upheld complaints. The next larg-
est category, taste and opinion, came second with 23, followed by 10 pertaining to
comparative advertising. The remaining categories were price claims (two) and safety
(one). Under Clause 1, advertisements must not “contain inaccurate, deceptive, or
otherwise misleading claims, statements, illustrations or representations, either direct
or implied, with regard to any identified or identifiable product(s) or service(s).” The
focus is on the general impression created in the recipient’s mind, not the intention of
the advertiser. Advertisements must also “not omit relevant information in a manner
which, in the result, is deceptive.” Details of any advertised offer must be “clearly and
understandably stated.” Any disclaimers and footnoted information “must not con-
tradict more prominent aspects of the message and should be located and presented
in such a manner as to be clearly visible and/or audible. All claims and representations
should be supportable in principle and practice, and those which claim to be sup-
ported by test or survey data should be reasonably competent and reliable, reflecting
accepted principles of research design and execution that characterize the current state
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of the art.” Finally, “The entity that is the advertiser in an advocacy advertisement must be clearly identified as the advertiser in either or both the audio or video portion of
the advocacy advertisement.”
Beginning in 1997, there have been regular reports and statistical summaries of
complaints received and complaints upheld. An Ad Complaints Report is issued each
year. The reports have been archived on ASC’s website since 2003. It is interesting to
see what people complained about most and how many complaints in ea
ch category
were upheld. Of a total of 1,200 complaints received in 2010 regarding 743 adver-
tisements, complaints under Clause 14 were the most numerous at 540. Clause 14:
Unacceptable Depictions and Portrayals deems unacceptable those advertisements
that condone any form of personal discrimination; appear to “exploit, condone or
incite violence”; or “directly encourage, or exhibit indifference to, unlawful or repre-
hensible behaviour.” Also unacceptable are advertisements that “demean, denigrate or
disparage any identifiable person, group of persons, firm, organization, industrial or
commercial activity, profession, product or service or attempt to bring it or them into
public contempt or ridicule”; or those that “undermine human dignity, or appear to
encourage or be indifferent to conduct or attitudes that offend the standards of public
decency among a significant segment of the population.”
Complaints in 2010 under Clause 1 and Clause 3 combined were the second most
numerous, at 436. Clause 3 was included because, like Clause 1, it deals with mislead-
ing information, in this case, about price claims. Interestingly, the number of com-
plaints upheld under these clauses was greater (46) than those upheld under Clause
14 (33). The two other categories attracting complaints that were pursued were Clause
10: Safety (40 complaints, two upheld) and Clause 12: Advertising to Children (13
complaints, one upheld).
The pattern described for 2010 was much the same for 2009, when there were
1,228 complaints. The year 2004 stands out both for the high number of complaints,
1,540, and for the type of complaints. These were mostly under Clause 14 (850) com-
pared to second-place Clause 1 (178). Once again, though, Clause 1 was ahead in com-
plaints upheld (40) as against Clause 14 (35).
Some idea of how Clause 14 is applied can be seen by looking at cases. Of the
1,075 complaints received by ASC in 1999, 365 involved Clause 14. Six complaints,
including three petitions signed by 54 individuals, were lodged against a Quebec
brewery, Brasserie Stroh, for a print advertisement identifying a woman as the new
sex symbol for the advertiser’s product in a campaign directed at men. Complainants
said the advertisement was offensive and contemptuous towards women, and the
ASC Council found it contravened the provision against “demeaning, denigrating
and disparaging an identifiable group of persons,” namely women. In another case
there were six complaints against a manufacturer for a television commercial showing
an individual participating in a religious sacrament. The complaint was that “the com-
mercial disparaged a recognized religion and a dignitary of its faith.” Council agreed
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that the result, although possibly unintentionally, was a trivialization of a sacrament fundamental to the adherents of the faith, thereby demeaning an identifiable group
of persons. The manufacturer was not identified because the advertisement was either
withdrawn or amended before the case was heard.
Some of the other upheld complaints in 1999 revealed practices or depictions that
are hard to read without a wry smile. One company advertised a service “in 24 hours,”
meaning three days of eight hours each instead of one complete day. It was found to
contravene Clause 1. Another was against Volkswagen Canada Inc.: “The commercial
depicted a car chase in which police officers commandeered a Volkswagen vehicle and
ordered its young driver to follow a criminal who fled the scene on a motorcycle. During
the chase, the driver was pictured cutting off other drivers, driving under the forks of a
forklift truck, and, at one point, driving at such speeds as to make the vehicle airborne.”
This was held in violation of Clause 10: Safety: “Advertisements must not without rea-
son, justifiable on educational or social grounds, display a disregard for safety or depict
situations that might encourage unsafe or dangerous practices, or acts.” The same clause
was invoked in a ruling against KIA Canada Inc. for a commercial on national television
that depicted “two women drivers aggressively competing with each other for the same
parking spot.” Council found that the use of a parking lot setting to depict the sports
utility vehicle’s off-road capabilities “displayed a disregard for safety and dramatized a
situation that might encourage others to perform unsafe or dangerous practices.”
Whether depictions of reckless driving are likely to be imitated on the road is,
of course, a contested question, and it can be argued that the code provisions are too
severe, imagining harm to arise from depictions that do not in fact result in harm. The
images are entertaining or they would not be presented in the advertising. On the
other hand, it is common experience that we take behavioural cues from observing
those around us. For most people, the restraints against reckless driving prevail, but
there is a small minority of “cowboy” drivers who do not feel such control. Such images
give encouragement to those who might be tempted to this kind of behaviour, with
potentially tragic consequences for others on the road. (The issue of free speech versus
controls is dealt with in Chapter 6.) The threshold for judging unacceptable risk from
a moral point of view is surely lower than the threshold required for imposing legal
or other penalties. Of course, it would be easy to misuse this provision to enforce an
unrealistic picture of the world where everyone depicted is a model of good behaviour,
but there is no doubt (to my mind, at least) that imitation plays a role in affecting
behaviour, especially that of the young.
Other provisions of the code remind us of other potential harms from advertis-
ing. Disguised advertising techniques are prohibited, as are deceptive price claims.
“Bait and switch” operations, in which real bargains are offered only in minute
quantities, are also infringements. Guarantees are not allowed unless there is full
explanation as to conditions and limits. It is a code violation to attack competitors
unfairly. Testimonials must “reflect the genuine, reasonably current opinion of the
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individual(s), group or organization making such representations, and must be based upon adequate information about or experience with the product or service being
advertised, and must not be otherwise deceptive.” Spurious scientific claims are disal-
lowed, and “any scientific, professional or authoritative claims or statements must be
applicable to the Canadian context, unless otherwise clearly stated.” Some of the code’s
ethical concerns deal with relations between advertisers. For instance, advertisers must
not imitate the copy of another “in such a manner as to mislead the consumer,” that is,
by capitalizing on another’s advertising campaign or image. The remaining provisions
are against preying on superstition and fears, exploiting the credulity of children, and
advertising to minors products that are prohibited for sale to them.
These provisions show concer
n for the major ethical criticisms of advertising, and,
provided the code is enforced, they ought to ensure a respectable practice of advertis-
ing. Unfortunately, because the code is enforced only on those companies voluntarily
subscribing to ASC, it does not affect al . There is also the problem that the enforce-
ment appears to be reactive in nature, so that it is up to consumers to place complaints
for the code to be effective. With 1,809 complaints for the whole of Canada in 2011,
it seems that public education in the use of this vehicle has still some distance to go,
even though this was a marked increase over previous years.9 Much offensive material
is imported from the United States, particularly cigarette advertisements and prod-
uct placements, so it is not clear how far the code’s effectiveness can be extended.
Anyone interested in lodging a complaint only has to contact the website to learn
about the procedures.10 It should be noted that the number of complaints in a given
year is susceptible to different interpretations. A low number could mean either that
people don’t know about ASC and the complaints procedures or that fewer people
have reason to complain, perhaps because advertisements have become more ethical
with the help of ASC. The 2010–2011 Annual Report, “Reaching Out,” describes a
campaign called “Truth in Advertising Matters” that aims to raise public awareness
of ASC’s work.
Sometimes the ASC is proactive in dealing with possible complaints. For instance,
in its 2010 Complaints Report, Year in Review, it clarified the meaning of the phrase
“No Contracts” in advertising. This does not mean that a subscriber has the right to
cancel the advertiser’s service without penalty on 30 days notice. This interpretation is
misleading, ASC says, because there would still be contractually binding terms govern-
ing the provision of the advertised service. ASC suggests that “no cancellation charges”
would be less misleading than “No Contracts.”11
ASC also engages with food and drink advertisers such as Kraft, Pepsi, Coca-
Cola, General Mills, Kellogg, Campbell, Nestlé, McDonald’s Restaurants, and others
on their compliance with agreed-upon principles and practices regarding advertising
to children. These companies are participants in ASC’s Canadian Children’s Food and