Obligations and availability of services - advertising
Advertising has occupied a certain niche in the modern financial world of purchase and selling and now it is inherent in the life of an average consumer. The purpose of advertising lies in the promotion of a product or a service and persuading a customer to buy it. I would like to consider the issue of advertising from an ethical point of view, concentrating whether it is always morally acceptable to influence the customer against his conscious will.
I would like to present the advert which promotes the professional services of a model bookkeeper. It is a small ad accomplished in black-and-white-print but is still fairly catching. It tries to encourage a need for efficient and highly-qualified financial management and to put forward the idea of being able to meet this need. It includes several kinds of service which are most likely to attract the attention of a company which needs the professional aid to get its financial affairs sorted out: full service bookkeeping, payroll, taxes, training and customizing, as these are crucial in today’s business. The maneuver they resort to is the highlighted qualities of their service which they put before the list of services so that a customer does through them with the already formed opinion about the high standards they may guarantee. Another point is that the producers are obviously informed about what an average customer is looking for – time efficiency and value for money, so these are the points they include in their advert alongside accuracy and computerization of their facilities. In other words, they gather the essentials their target audience is looking for in order to produce the image of a trustworthy and reliable firm which knows the desires of its clients. In my opinion, the advertisers produce these beliefs rationally, seeing that it is not colorful and does not include any photos or pictures which can evoke some emotions. Besides, it does not contain some subliminal hints which may make emotions take over reasons.
As far as I am concerned, this advertisement is morally acceptable and does not abuse the human right for free choice. It does not short-circuit our normal thought processes by urging a customer to make a quick decision. It can hardly appeal to those who do not deal with financial affairs, so there is little chance someone will end up using their services without actual need.
Another point is that the advert does not violate the customers’ need to be properly informed. Although I cannot find out whether the information they provide is true or false without resorting to their service, I may claim that they present all the information needed for the further cooperation. Despite the absence of the precise charge, it is stated that it is affordable. There are no specific details but there is a contact phone number. Even if misrepresentation is meant, it definitely starts after the ‘advert reading’ stage.
Moreover, the advert does not violate the client’s right to be competent. It is not aimed at easily affected people (for example, children, people in grief, mentally disturbed people or those who are particularly vulnerable). It is created for influencing the average businesses which can decide for themselves and can distinguish commercial tricks from the useful information they accompany (although there are hardly any visible tricks in this ad).
And the last, but not least – this advert does not participate in the Wastefulness of Advertising. This means that instead of being published in a colorful newspaper or on TV, that is expensive and would entail the raising of the service charge, it was probably printed in the Yellow Pages and is not guilty of wastefulness.
 	So, the conclusion is that this advert is morally acceptable and influences a target customer to the extent they themselves allow.