Thursday 19 February 2009

Is it ethical to advertise alcohol?

There are lots of advertisements that are trying to convince more and more people to buy alcohol, but is it ethical to advertise it? According to all the possibilities that teenagers who are under the legal age might consume alcohol and also cause problems because of it, etc. However, not all the alcoholic drinks are bad for us, there are some people regularly drink it for their own health.

The way of advertising alcohol is very important. Nowadays, some people get addicted on drinking, sometimes ended up with binge drinking; in addition if the idea of the advertisements lead people to the wrong side, then it's likely to be an encouragement in telling them to drink more and more. On the other hand, for instance, when advertising alcohol for people to drink healthily, such as a glass of red wine everyday, then this could be a benefit for people, on both knowledge and health.

Businesses also want more profit in what they are selling, throughout advertisements they are likely to get more attention from consumers. For my opnion, it's crucial for them to ensure the market research has done it properly, this is all about people's behaviour and attitude towards alcoholic drinks. Even though there are other drinks that are non-alcoholic but the shape/packaging are just like those real alcoholic drinks. In this case, they are trying to satisfy people who are under age but still could feel they are a part of the group.

It's hard to say whether is ethical to advertise alcohol or not because it would remains to be controversial. However, there are both benefits and drawbacks for people to consider when buying alcoholic drinks, so I think advertisements are just playing a role of influences that people might change they think of drinking alcohol, either is good or bad, for example.

1 comment:

chris sivewright said...

I know you have dropped Sociology but I did not know you have dropped Economics and Business Studies.