Growth of the Advertising Industry—Blog 1

http://tribune.com.pk/story/117227/advertising-expected-to-grow-by-20-in-2011/

According to the International Herald Tribune, the advertising industry in Pakistan is expected to grow by 20% this year. This percentage growth is said to be higher than the global average. In 2010, the industry spent 28 billion Rupees in both print and electronic media.

The ethical issue this industry will have to face would be misinformation. The advertising industry can easily misinform their consumers into buying certain goods or services. This form of manipulation will be thwarted by the Pakistan Advertisement Society (PAS).

The PAS takes ethical practices within the industry very seriously. Their main objective is to ensure that as the industry expands, ethical practices and moral values will not compromise.
Although the PAS does not have the technological resources that would allow them to monitor advertisements before they’re aired, according to PAS chairman Aly Mustansir, “PAS does look out for advertisements that may be misleading or unethical, and then issues them a warning or asks the firm running the advertisements to discontinue them.”

There are ways to prevent the advertising industry from unknowingly taking part in unethical practices. Managers can make sure their company’s mission statement is clearly communicated throughout the business; they can focus on ethical practices themselves setting an example to the employees; and they can implement ethics training programs for new and old employees. These programs will allow the employees to have greater awareness and understanding on ethical issues.

RTSmith