In the past few decades, attention has turned to the need to apply commercial marketing concepts, knowledge, and techniques to promote goods, services, and actions that enhance consumer well-being and social welfare through socially and environmentally responsible advertising, for example, recycling promotions. Critics argue, however, that for-profit advertisers who endorse social responsibility are inherently serving commercial purposes and diluting the value of socially responsible advertising. Scholars in many fields—advertising, marketing, communications, and psychology—explore ways to encourage consumers, companies, and policymakers to adopt socially responsible behaviours, and to provide theoretical and practical insights regarding effective applications of pro-social and pro-environmental marketing messages. This book comprises ten chapters that contribute to advertising theory, research, and practice by providing an overview of current and diverse research that compares, contrasts, and reconciles conflicting views regarding social and environmental advertising; uncovering individual differences in perception of advertising messages and their consequences for social and environmental behaviours; reconciling societal and business interests; identifying a message factor that determines eco-friendly behaviours; and identifying source factors that enhance and weaken advertising effectiveness. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Advertising.

The field of business ethics continues to expand intellectually and geographically. During the past five decades, scholars have developed and deepened their inquiries into the ethics of commercial and corporate conduct. This Companion provides a novel overview of the discipline of business ethics, covering the major areas of the field as well as new and emerging topics. The eight thematic units range over an extraordinary set of subjects and include chapters on the history and pedagogy of business ethics, moral philosophy, the nature of business, responsibilities within the firm, economic institutions, the 2008 financial crisis, globalization, and business ethics in different regions of the world. Led by a well-respected editorial team, this unique volume gathers an international array of experts whose various critical approaches yield insights from areas such as public policy, economics, law, and history, in addition to business and philosophy. With its fresh analyses, wide scope, and clarity of approach, this volume will be an essential addition to library collections in business, management, and applied ethics.

Advertising is something which we are exposed to from a young age and which can affect us in many different ways. Centered around the question “Does advertising improve society?” this volume explores the impact and issues of advertising and questions its social responsibility, with a focus on Hong Kong society. The collection of essays offers a broad view of the interaction between society and advertising, from an introduction to semiotic studies, exploring the use of gender stereotypes to the employment of brand placement as a new form of product promotion. Written by professors of advertising with experience from both within the industry and from international research, this is a senior level textbook designed to augment any studies in advertising, marketing, public relations or media studies.

Gender stereotypes are general beliefs about sex-linked traits and roles, psychological characteristics, and behaviors, all of which contribute towards describing women and men. Gender role stereotyping in advertising has been a critical topic since the 1970s, and there is a long-lasting debate between advertisers and sociologists about the role and the social nature of advertising. Although changing role structures in the family and the labor force have brought significant variation in both male and female roles, it has been noted that there is a cultural lag in advertising, where men and women were, for a long period of time, depicted in more traditional roles. This book extends the research on gender stereotypes in advertising over the past 20 years, highlighting key themes such as attitude towards sex and nudity in advertising; women in decorative roles; the changing roles of women and men in advertising; and the viewpoints of those advertising professionals who design campaigns. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Advertising.

This pro/con book looks at how advertising works and how teens can avoid being manipulated by it. A history of advertising and the regulation of deceptive advertising is included within this book. Author Nancy Day also provides examples of the useful information some advertising provides while pointing out the subtle manipulation in advertising on television, in print, and on the Web. She encourages young readers to become more critical viewers of advertising and more discerning consumers.

This book examines the social, psychological, legal, and ethical impact - perceived or proven - that may result from advertising in the booming Chinese market. The book provides readers with an understanding of the two-way relationship between advertising and Chinese society. Major issues addressed include rising consumerism, consumers' attitudes towards advertising and reactions to advertising appeals, cultural messages conveyed in advertisements, gender representations, sex appeal, offensive advertising, advertising law and regulation, advertising to children and adolescents, symbolic meanings of advertisements, public service advertising, and new media advertising and its social impact. Advertising and Chinese Society resorts to a variety of research techniques including content analysis, survey, experiment, semiotic analysis, and secondary data analysis. The book will enhance the sensitivity of scholars and practitioners interested in Chinese advertising and its social ramifications.

In all circumstances, television advertisements affect children of different age and gender groups in terms of consumption. Advertisers consider children as the target audience because of ability to affect and lead children. Today, since television advertisements have an important and effective role in the conscious raising of children who will be socialised as the consumers of the future, we are confronted by the imperative to focus on television ads. This book examines research which highlights the effects of television advertisements on primary school age children and helps to understand their attitude towards advertisements.