An ethics of representation for international marketing communication
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers an ethical analysis of visual representation that provides criteria for and sheds light on the appropriateness dimension of marketing communications. It provides a theoretically informed framework for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in visual representation.
Design/methodology/approach
An interdisciplinary conceptual review and analysis focuses on four representational conventions, synthesizing ethical concerns, to provide a broader context for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in marketing representation: face‐ism, idealization, exoticization and exclusion. This framework is discussed and applied to marketing communications.
Findings
It argues that valuations of communication appropriateness must be informed by an awareness of the ethical relationship between marketing representations and identity. It is no longer satisfactory to associate advertising solely with persuasion, rather advertising must be seen as a representational system, with pedagogical as well as strategic functions. We conclude by discussing the theoretical, research, and managerial implications that arise from an ethics of visual representation.
Originality/value
Urges moving beyond an advertising=persuasion model to encompass representation and culture in marketing communication studies. Contributes to understanding the ethical implications of marketing communication. Challenges marketers and researchers to broaden their conception of marketing communication to one more consistent with an image economy.
Keywords
Citation
Schroeder, J.E. and Borgerson, J.L. (2005), "An ethics of representation for international marketing communication", International Marketing Review, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 578-600. https://doi.org/10.1108/02651330510624408
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited