Ethics and Manipulation in Advertising ― Answering a Flawed Indictment

For more than 50 years the critics of advertising have argued that advertising is bad because it manipulates, and that it must be reined in by political controls. Not so, argues Michael Phillips. If advertising really were as successful in manipulating consumers as its critics claim, it almost certainly would be unethical and probably should be controlled--but it's not that effective. A growing body of empirical evidence now affirms that the enemies of advertising vastly overrate its power. Thus, the ethical case against manipulative advertising collapses, and with it goes much--if not all--of a statist political agenda that in Phillips's opinion is the real inspiration for the indictment. A closely reasoned, highly informative, provocative search for an understanding of advertising's efficacy and its morality, intended for professionals, academics, business ethicists, and informed readers alike.

MICHAEL J. PHILLIPS is Professor of Business Law at Indiana University's School of Business. He holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University, and LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from George Washington University. A former editor-in-chief of theAmerican Business Law Journal, he has authored more than 40 scholarly articles and coauthored two business law texts. He is also author ofThe Dilemmas of Individualism: Status, Liberty, and American Constitutional Law (Greenwood, 1983).