Ethics of Advertising – research proposal

A Struggling Medium: Online Advertising Moves into Social-Media

As mass media has evolved, advertising has become more targeted.  With the recent shift of advertising into social media, where is the ethical line?  Will advertisers eventually research individuals?  Is that happening now?  I want to look at these questions but I’ll also need to understand the role of external factors in the current system.

Even though the internet plays a central role in our lives, many industries that exist in the realm of the prevailing method of communication have not yet found solid ground.  I believe online advertising in its current form is crude and ineffective.  No one truly knows how to advertise with great success in the current model.  Traditional methods of advertising aren’t effective because users have easy access to information.

The “system” that the internet will ultimately become has not yet solidified.  Will it become a pay system?  How and or will it be regulated?  A number of questions remain unanswered.  We have the history of the printing press, the advent of cheap newspapers, radio and television to look at to give us a context of how advertising found its footing in each of those new communication paradigms.  Can those histories help illuminate what is taking place and what may happen in the future?

The internet is vast, it dwarfs television.  Users are everywhere and nowhere.  Advertisers are finding the best way to connect with the right users is through social media.  We “Like” things on Facebook and a number of other websites.  We have interests.  We have friends with whom we publicly share information.  And most importantly, this is all documented and free to be seen.  Email providers have automated systems that pick up keywords in correspondence to display relevant ads.  Facebook shows users ads that are related to their interests.  The only assured method in the current model is getting the right products and services in front of an interested individual.

As the internet continues to evolve, if advertising through social media loses the ability to persuade people to buy a product or service, does that mean advertisers will dig deeper into an individual’s online life to gather pertinent information?  Advertisers have always attempted to target their ads.  It makes sense, it’s efficient.  But as technology has advanced and become more personalized, ubiquitous and in-hand at all times, advertising’s ability to target has exponentially increased while their ability to persuade has fallen through the floor.

Advertisers have one objective, to sell a product or service.  The method they use is inconsequential, persuasion or connecting with interested individuals.  In an environment like the internet where users actively seek the information they desire or can easily navigate away from content they don’t like, how do advertisers create a campaign?  How do advertisers put quality work into content that might only be seen by select few?  Are there other methods of reaching the right audiences?  As the internet shifts or becomes regulated, will that effect how advertisers reach users?

What are the motivating factors pushing advertisers toward social media?  Is the ethical line crossed by websites and not advertisers?  Is it ethical for Facebook to allow advertisements to reach users based on stated interests?