Ethics and manipulation in advertising

The argument that political controls are needed because advertising manipulates consumers is, for Phillips, a critique with a tacit assumption: that such manipulation is bad. Phillips considers that assumption from the perspective of a business ethicist, applying four ethical frameworks: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, autonomy, and virtue ethics. If it works as the critics say, manipulative advertising probably is unethical under most or all of these criteria. But does it really manipulate?

Does it stimulate the propensity to consume and dictate the brand and product choices consumers make? Basing his conclusion on considerable empirical research, Phillips argues that advertising is not an especially strong force in these respects. For that reason, most of the ethical arguments against it break down. This means, he says, that if capitalism's critics want to tout some new and better social order, they cannot use advertising's manipulativeness as an aid in doing so.

On the other hand, nothing in the book necessarily blocks piecemeal attempts to regulate manipulative ads that do work and do cause some harm.