Some people object to ads that encourage sex, gambling, smoking, the consumption of alcohol, and other “vices.” Even people who are not much concerned about such vices are still concerned that ads encourage underaged sex, gambling, smoking, the consumption of alcohol, and other vices. They believe that ads present bad role models. Advertising, some critics say, contributes to the moral breakdown of society because it presents ubiquitous images of unconstrained hedonism. Ethical concerns about ads for gambling, tobacco, and alcohol are often legitimate. Products that are harmful and sometimes addictive raise ethical issues in themselves; encouraging the use of such products is even more questionable. Many countries and states limit, control, or even ban ads for some or all these products.
Violence in advertising would be ethically objectionable if there was much of it, but it is rare. The main exceptions are ads for films and video games, but objections in these cases should be aimed at the violence in the products, not just in the ads. The exposure of unsuspecting people and children to such ads is an issue that should be, and in many jurisdictions is, controlled by regulations on the placement of the ads. Sex in advertising is a much bigger issue because there is so much of it. The ethical issues can be best seen if we separate consideration of sex in ads for products that are connected to sex from consideration of sex in ads where it is gratuitous and has no or only a tenuous connection with the product. Ads for condoms and sex clubs, of course, emphasize sex. Except for puritans, the only ethical issue about these ads is making sure young children are not exposed. Other products, such as fashions, jeans, underwear, perfume, and chocolate, are related to sex, and advertising is often used to associate a product or logo with sex. Calvin Klein, for example, has built his business on making his clothes and perfumes sexy. Raising ethical objections to this is difficult unless one objects ethically to current sexual mores in most developed countries. Advertising did not cause our liberal attitudes toward sex; the sexual revolution was caused by the pill, penicillin, and other social forces. Any decrease of sex in advertising would probably not change society’s sexual attitudes, so there is no ethical problem with Calvin Klein jeans, underwear, and perfume being thought sexy.
Sex is also used gratuitously in ads for products that have nothing directly to do with sex. We are all familiar with scantily clad women in ads for beer, cigarettes, cars, trucks, and vacation beaches. Note that for the most part these ads are aimed at straight males and use the stereotypical sexy woman—sexy, that is, in the minds and fantasies of straight males. Consider, for example, a two-page ad from a men’s magazine that shows on the first page a woman with huge breasts, clad only in a bikini and posed in a sexually suggestive fashion. The copy asks if her measurements get the reader’s heart racing. Turn the page and there is a pickup truck and the reader is asked to look at the truck’s measurements. Horsepower, torque, and so on are listed. How do such ads work? Their ubiquity in men’s magazines certainly suggests that they do sell cars, trucks, and beer. Such ads seem to say, “If you are a straight male attracted to big breasted women, you can prove it to yourself and others by buying our ‘masculine’ product.” This interpretation presupposes that many straight males are very insecure about their sexual orientation and need to have their masculinity constantly confirmed by buying products with a masculine image. Is this manipulation of insecurities unethical? Perhaps not; straight males are generally capable of freely choosing to buy or not buy these products.
A more serious ethical objection to such ads is the attitude toward women that they imply and encourage. Women in these ads are being used as sex objects. One does not have to be a radical feminist to be concerned about the effects that exposure to thousands of such ads might have on straight men. It does not encourage them to see women as intelligent, productive, and competent individuals. Perhaps the vast majority of straight males are not greatly affected individually, but it does set a social tone about what are acceptable attitudes toward women. And the few men who take the objectification of women as sex objects seriously sometimes commit extremely unethical actions.
