This advertisement, a commercial on cable television, advertised an insurance company. The advertisement featured a typical couple driving down the road chatting, when a car sideswiped them without any warning. The advertisement was intended to educate the public as to the importance of insurance because of life's unpredictability, but the shock tactic used in the commercial has negative effects on the watchers. Like news shows, the advertisement is meant to inspire fear, which creates a negative social environment.

But advertisements don't necessarily have to create a negative environment in order to be ethically and socially negative. Neither do they have to offend target markets with less than tasteful techniques or shock tactics. They can be deceptive, convincing consumers to purchase products they don't need. One type of advertising particularly guilty of this offense is paid programming, or television length commercials that appear on home shopping networks or traditional networks at...
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