The American Association of Advertising Agencies, a name used since 1917, has been dropped in favor of the "4A's."
4A's president Nancy Hill, noting a Harris poll that blamed ads for causing people to buy things they can't afford and also noting that many 4A's members have significant PR practices, announced the change at a meeting of the group in San Francisco this week.
"Our business is still fighting for more respect in the public sphere," Hill told the meeting, adding: "The common perception of our business in the U.S. continues to be so negative for so many people."
Nancy Hill
Photo: AAAA |
She said the industry needs a better image especially since clients are cutting budgets and the government is considering stricter regulation of the industry.
The Harris poll found that 66% of Americans blame advertising for at least part of the current economic crisis.
Adland Has Poor Ethical Sense
"The Moral Media, How Journalists Reason About Ethics," published in 2005, found that ad professionals show a tendency not to employ "ethical reasoning" when considering which course of action to take.
Authors were Lee Wilkins, professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, and Renita Coleman, professor at the University of Texas School of Journalism.
An ad agency owner who was against alcohol consumption would most likely take on a multi-million dollar beer account, the study found.
"Ad practitioners think about immediate consequences when deciding how to act…in other words, utilitarianism is most often used to resolve ethical problems," said the book.
Ad professionals "do lack ethics, or at the very least choose not to exercise the ethical reasoning abilities they have," said the authors, who administered the "Defining Issues Test" to 65 ad people.
Ad people "suspend moral judgment to focus on the financial implications of their decisions, specifically the financial implications for themselves and the client," the book found.
The test, which confronts subjects with choices between two "goods" and two "evils," has been taken by more than 30,000 professionals of various callings since 1970.
PR Pros, Journalists Fared Better
Wilkins and Coleman, after obtaining a $10,000 grant from the Arthur W. Page Center at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted 60-90 minute interviews with 129 PR pros at PR firms throughout the U.S. in 2005 and found they scored "high" in terms in ethical awareness.
With PR people, belonging to "fewer professional organizations" resulted in a "significant correlation" with "higher quality ethical reasoning," it was found.
Another finding was that working for a large organization correlated with higher ethical reasoning.
Looking for external ethical guidance in the form of rules — whether in codes or ethics or employer-established standards — did not correlate significantly with strong ethical reasoning.
"Since high-order ethical thinking is strongly related to cognitive development, reliance on external rules may, in fact, retard this cognitive growth process," the study found.
Journalists Have Moral Character
The Moral Media found that journalists have a "highly moral character."
The Defining Issues Test, used on 249 print and broadcast reporters nationwide, found that "thinking like a journalist involves moral reflection done at a level … that equals or exceeds members of other learned professions."
"Journalism is one of the most morally developed professions, ranking only behind seminarians, physicians and medical students," said the study.
Ad professionals placed 16 in terms of ethical awareness on a list of 20 occupations.
Ranked 17 to 20 were business undergraduates, high school students, prison inmates and junior high students.
The 4A's represents mostly the larger ad agencies. Its more than 400 members handle about 80% of ads placed in the U.S.
Until 1991, when it adopted the policy of "sequential liability," a 4A's agency was responsible for payment of any ads that it placed. Current policy is that media and other suppliers will not get paid unless the client of the ad agency is paid.
Omnicom recently warned its suppliers and media that it would enforce this policy. |