5th Annual Spuler Ethics Symposium

On Tuesday April 16^th was the 5th annual Spuler Ethics Symposiu. The panel included Timothy Hendrick, John DeLa Cruz, Ivonne Montes de Oca, and Dr. Michael Llewellyn-Williams. The discussions were about the ethics on advertising. In connection John stated that in advertising it wasn’t about the strict black and white areas it was about the in between areas, the gray areas. Advertising is not about playing it safe in fact a lot of commercials don’t play it safe. Advertising like to make challenges and see how close they can make it to the line without passing it. However there is also that small percentage that does cross the line and becomes too controversial.

Political issues were also discussed in that sometimes, just like some advertisements cross the line, some political advertisements are completely false just to get ahead and make the opponent look weak.  Dr. Michael Llewellyn-Williams discusses his encounter with political advertising. He said that when he was starting out he was with an agency and he told them from the get-co that he was not going to do political advertisements. In the end it didn’t hurt him because he ended up leaving that place shortly after but the point was that he didn’t like political advertising that much and how much of a scam it was that he protested what he would and wouldn’t do.

I liked the overall discussion created by the panel. It was very interesting to hear a professional perspective and actually have some of my views line up with theirs. Who knows I may actually have some sort of future in advertising but for now the overall message I got from the discussion was that advertising plays a ginormous role in our lives whether we want it to or not and whether we notice it or not.