Answer to Question 1Associative advertising is morally suspect inasmuch as it undermines the development of virtues in both consumers and advertisers.
- Associative advertising attempts to influence people not on the basis of any sincere desire to improve their lives, but rather to make a profit. In many instances it attempts to influence people to buy products that are harmful. It thus tends to desensitize its practitioners to the compassion, concern, and sympathy for others that are central to the development of moral virtue.
- Consumers are encouraged to try to fulfill non-market desires by impossible means and inevitably find themselves frustrated and disappointed. A further result of the emphasis on consumer goods is that the non-market cultivation of the virtues essential to a fulfilling life is not given its proper place.
Objections Considered
- Associative advertising is not a violation of individual autonomy.
- Associative advertising must to some degree satisfy the desires it appeals to or it would not be effective.
- Associative advertising enriches otherwise unsatisfying lives.
- Associative advertising is essential to the economy of an industrial society.
- It is far from clear that there are realistic alternatives to associative advertising.
Answer to Question 2Marketers are under no obligation to tell the whole truth about a product, so long as they do not mislead or deceive their customers. The truth about an item or service being traded should be told. But this does not ... mean that the whole truth should be told, including various matters associated with the buying and selling of the item or service in question-such as, its price elsewhere, its ultimate suitability to the needs of the buyer, its full value and so on.
The view that a marketer must divulge all the information a client would find useful presupposes the ethical theory of altruism, i.e. the view that one's primary duty is to advance the interests of others.
Other ethical theories, e.g. utilitarianism, Kantianism, classical ethical egoism, do not support the view that one has an obligation to tell the whole truth about a product.
There is good reason to reject altruism as an ethical theory.
Therefore there is good reason to reject the claim that marketers are under an obligation to tell the whole truth about a product.
Objection Considered
This position would allow a marketer not to inform a customer about a serious product defect, so long as the customer made no inquiries.
Reply to Objection
Machan introduces the notions of essential features and rational expectations. If a product's defect prevents it from fulfilling it's essential function the marketer is deceiving a customer not to inform her of the defect, since she has a legitimate expectation that a product will be able to fulfill its essential function.
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