Legal and Ethical Foundations of Advertising Practice

Legal Framework of Advertising

Advertising is highly restricted by law, which mandates that any public event or campaign must be disclosed using appropriate means, such as the press.

Key Definitions in Advertising Law

Advertisers

Advertisers are individuals or legal entities professionally involved in providing services related to the creation, execution, and distribution of advertising campaigns, including the creation of public programs on behalf of other advertisers.

The Media

The media refers to the channels used to transmit advertising messages to the public. The main channels include:

• Television (TV)
• Radio
• Cinema
• Newspapers and Magazines
• Internet

Consumers

Consumers are all people within a country. In the context of advertising, they are understood as the recipients of goods and services.

General Principles of Law

These principles fall under criminal law, possessing political and legal dimensions. They originate from legal scholars who have shaped legislation based on the actual factors of power.

The Role of Criminal Law

The primary functions of criminal law include:

• Social Control: Criminal law provides the formalization or institutionalized order necessary for social coexistence.
• Protection of Legal Rights: Criminal law establishes principles and rules for addressing crime and describing prohibited conduct. It specifically protects life, health, liberty, and property.
• Addressing Legal Injury: It addresses consequences arising from legal injury.
• Ethical and Social Functions: It helps in forming societal patterns.
• Psychosocial Function: It satisfies social motivations. Criminal law acts as a channeler for the collective environment that demands justice.

Characteristics of Law

• It is public.
• It punishes external behaviors.
• It is normative.
• It is valued.
• It is personal.

Justice and Common Good

Justice

Justice is the virtue or good habit of giving each person what is due to them, what they are responsible for, and what must be given. While often understood primarily in economic terms, it encompasses many other, often overlooked, aspects.

Common Good

The common good is the set of conditions of social life that allows associations and each of their members to achieve their own fulfillment more easily and completely.

Advertising Ethics and Social Responsibility

Advertising Ethics

One of the fundamental principles that individuals engaged in advertising must uphold is responsibility for the behavioral outcomes they seek to elicit from the public.

Power and Authority

Power refers to the domain, authority, and jurisdiction required to command or execute an action.

Social Function of Advertising

The social function of advertising is to disseminate information about various topics or products, making them widely available to communities and individuals through mass media like radio and television.

Equity

Equity is a social value connotation, often understood as fairness or equality.