Cosmetics advertising

Cosmetics advertising is a large area of controversy. Problems range from misleading claims, made up or exaggerated scientific language, sexism, body dysmorphia and self image problems, harmful chemicals and animal testing.

The text of the last one:

No one cares if a man looks crap, but will your facial skin crack up before it's 40?
 

Advertising ethics past and present

Designers have been involved in advertising and marketing for years. Three books from the library look at ways in which designers are asked to manipulate and persuade customers in different ways from the beginning of the century to the present day.

Smoke Signals deals with smoking over the last 100 years.

Often the methods used to persuade involve women and their looks or men being manly. There's even one involving a cute kid holding a cigarette. 

Now the law has changed so it is illegal to advertise tobacco products, so this post might be redundant, but the beliefs of graphic designers and the general public a century ago were very different to today's. They probably really believed smoking was not harmful to your health and that untoasted tobacco caused coughing fits. 

So what ethical dilemmas might crop up in the future that we take for granted now?

Maccy Ds Product Placement in Childrens' Textbooks

I have been looking at the way children are advertised to. They apparently are missing the part of the brain that makes them able to tell when they are being persuaded to do something (sorry I can't remember where I read this because it was a couple of weeks ago!) Anyway, I have a few other bits in the pipeline on this subject but here is a starter.

This reading comprehension book from China, aimed at eight year olds, has been suspected of including product placement dues to its several references to McDonnalds.
" The article features a line where a hungry character has an urge to eat McDonalds's, stating that "after deciding to eat McDonald's, he felt much happier." " 

Source URL: http://news.echinacities.com/detail/65657-McDonalds-Reference-in-School-Textbook-Sparks-Product-Placement-Debate

Is airbrushing unethical in advertising?

At present, exposure to heavily airbrushed images of people in advertising is inevitable. The idea that these unrealistic depictions have a negative affect on the way people view themselves is one that has been around for some time, particularly with regards to women. Companies in recent years have begun to produce campaigns which focus on "real women." By appealing to "real women" with real flaws, (the entire un-airbrushed population) they are attracting a large audience... to come and buy there ethical products. Cause being ethical is fashionable? And makes you feel good inside!

Here is a Dove Evolution advert which shows exactly what goes on behind the scenes on a beauty shoot.

Sebastian Deterding - Rethinking the Ethics of Design

Design Anarchy

Designers are to our information age what engineers were to the age of steam, what scientists were to the age of reason. They set the mood of the mental environment - the look and lure of magazines, the tone and pull of TV, the give-and-take of the Net. They create the envy and desire that fuels the economy and the cynicism that underlies our postmodern condition.
But the most exciting thing about design today is not the digital pyrotechnics, the exploding, mutating forms - the wild anarchy of it all. It's the politics. More than any other profession, design stands in the crossfire of competing worldviews: modern vs. postmodern, commercial vs. uncommercial, Planet Earth vs. Planet Inc. Whether designers acknowledge it or not, their profession is one of the key sites of struggle over the production and distribution of meaning.
Many designers refuse to believe it. They went to design schools that taught them to be "professionals" whose job was simply to serve the "communication needs" of their clients. They were trained to distance themselves from the ethical and political values that underlie their work. Generations of designers learned to put their personal feelings aside and just deliver "design solutions."
Critic Katherine McCoy likens this attitude to that of prostitutes, practitioners of the so-called oldest profession, who "must maintain an extreme of cool objectivity about the most intimate of human activities, disciplining their personal responses to deliver an impartial and consistent product to their clients."
Pity the high-powered, market-driven, modern designers. They're well paid for their commercial sex but passion eludes them.



This seems like a pretty drastic view although I do like how Lasn summarises with the last line which is a pretty good metaphor with designers with no conscience.

Ethics Infographic

Found this infographic showing the views of one designer he brings up some interesting points.