Page 184 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

176 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

can result from successful social marketing. Health claims are a paradig-
matic example of the problem.
In addition, one must make a distinction between the social cause and
the marketing of it. Both the cause itself and the marketing aspect of it can
raise ethical issues, and even experts can have difficulty separating the
cause from its marketing (Laczniak, Lusch, & Murphy, 1979). Some have
argued that social marketers should be held to an even higher standard
than commercial marketers because they are explicitly claiming to do good
(Andreasen, 2001; Kirby & Andreasen, 2001; Murphy & Bloom, 1990).
There is some indication that the public expects social marketers to adhere
to higher standards than commercial marketers, and social marketers have
been criticized for behavior that commercial marketers engage in routinely,
such as puffery in advertising messages.
Thus, an examination or reexamination of ethical issues is more impor-
tant than ever. During the past several decades, the social marketing market-
place has undergone radical change. The level of competition has increased
dramatically as more and more nonprofits chase shrinking government
funds and attempt to break through the clutter to cultivate donor loyalty.
Increased competition has expanded social marketing budgets and staffs.
Paid media, which were relatively unheard of in the social marketing mar-
ketplace of the 1980s, are now common, and electronic media—especially
social media—provide the opportunity even for social marketers with shoe-
string budgets to become major players in providing persuasive messages.
Any blogger can become a social critic and reach a broad audience with ac-
cusations related to social marketing. In addition, companies have entered
the cause marketing arena with unparalleled force and resourcefulness as
corporate social marketing in North America has spiraled to annual expen-
ditures of $1.8 billion (“2013 Sponsorship Outlook,” 2013). No doubt, in-
creased competition, new media, and new corporate players have intensified
some long-standing ethical issues and created new ones.
This chapter begins by defining some concepts related to both ethics
and social marketing. Next, it identifies and discusses ethical issues in so-
cial marketing and then presents approaches to analyze ethical issues in
sophisticated and nuanced ways. Finally, it discusses how social marketing
professionals can act on their values and implement ethical behavior.

Ethics and Ethical Marketing Defined

Simply put, ethics is an attempt to determine and put into practice what is
right and good. More formally stated, ethics is “a systematic attempt to
make sense of our individual and social moral experience, in such a way