What Are The Role Ethics That Plays In The Advertising Industry?

Ethics play a major role in every trade. Without a set of ethical principles in place chaos would reign supreme and social order would crumble. Likewise, advertising professionals have to adhere to a standard set of practices that would ensure their survival in the industry and maintain a level of credibility with the consumers and the industries in general as the advertising agencies act in proxy of their clients. Some roles are as follows.
Advertising agencies are generally required to follow a set of standard outlines as enumerated in the independent bodies of professionals from the industry, that has been mutually agreed upon. For example, in Pakistan the regulatory authority for the print media is the APNS which regulates all the policies and practices of advertising in the print media providing certain safeguards for their members.
In some countries the advertising agencies also have to follow a moral code which requires them to adhere to standards of decency. They may also be required to ascertain the validity of the claims made by their clients in their advertisements so that the consumers are not fooled by flashy glamorous ads.
Another ethical rule that is supposed to be followed by advertising agencies is not to give undue benefit to the clients by compromising their own share in the benefits they receive from the media in lieu of their services. Thereby, limiting the role of giants in cannibalizing smaller advertising agencies with predatory policies.

Like everything else in the advertising industry, ethics is a way for companies to create the image that they have corporate responsibility, and a benchmark for government and other groups to criticize the type of advertisements that are produced.