Advertising that "works": utilitarian judgment in the ethical evaluations of advertising professionals in Curitiba
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18617/liinc.v21i1.7747Keywords:
advertising, ethics, utilitarian judgment, recognize moral issue, moral imaginationAbstract
This article presents the results of a study conducted by the Observatory of Advertising and Ethics in Consumption. The objective is to understand how market logic, which tends to be more utilitarian, influences the moral behavior of professionals faced with ethical dilemmas, based on narrative interviews conducted with advertising professionals. We investigated how utilitarian judgment (Hunt; Vitell, 2006) relates to the recognition of the moral issue (Jones, 1991) and moral imagination (Werhane, 1999). The analysis showed that, although utilitarianism predominates, it is not completely subordinate to this professional ethic. Rather, there is a constant tension between the deontological and teleological dimensions. Advertising professionals attempt to balance, although unconsciously, ethical and commercial interests, impacted by their roles in the world of work and their individual trajectories.
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