Unethical ads on this site

DT Strain

DT Strain

Spiritual Naturalist
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I work in advertising, and in most of the larger companies we had standards on the content of ads. One of those, was that an ad could not be designed to look like it is not an ad, or be otherwise deceptive.

There is a banner ad that appears on this site, which is designed to look like it is a message inbox for this site. It says you have x messages. The ad is for googleadservices.com.

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This ad is inherently unethical because it attempts to *trick* the user into clicking on it, pretending to be a web element it is not.

I would suggest that Interfaith Forums:

(1) Have a standard of not accepting ads from advertisers that purposely make themselves seem to be something other than advertising, and

(2) Have the word "Advertisement" appear above ad areas on the site, surrounded by a black border (not having a border in their design is a common tactic in trying to make an ad look like an element of a website).

Thanks.
 
Where does one draw the line between ethical and unethical advertisement?
 
Paladin,

The whole purpose of ethics is to do just that. Duh.
 
aren't ads by google using cookies and internet searches by each of us and designing adverts specifically for us?

aren't we all seeing different ads?
 
wil said:
aren't ads by google using cookies and internet searches by each of us and designing adverts specifically for us?

aren't we all seeing different ads?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. My question was about the way advertising works in general and how manipulating human psychology in order to sell products or ideas is anathema to anyone who leans toward a deontological ethic. I realize the statement by Eclectic Mystic seems a little untoward considering the impact of the question, but then again he is still recovering from the beating he took from the three billy goats gruff.

More to the point however is the distance between a utilitarian view of advertising as opposed to a stricter ethic that mirrors Kant's "Kingdom of ends". According to Kant one should never use a human begin as a means to an end, because to him, humans are an end in themselves. Pity that so many religious people eschew this idea when it comes to making a profit or defending an ideology that puts profits and self-justification ahead of human beings.
 
they say their are more pyschologists on 'madison avenue' studying the intracies of the human brain and how to initiate that 'call to action' for marketing then there are in any other industry.

It is all about how to get you to 'push that button' say yes... ethics??

buyer beware...
 
DT Strain said:
There is a banner ad that appears on this site, which is designed to look like...
Click to expand...

Consider also the possibility of Adware not part of the site. I've had endless problems with MegaSearch and the like on Google Chrome. :mad:
 
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