Ethics and the American Advertising Federation Principles

Abstract
Much has been written about ethical issues in the advertising industry. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of recent American Advertising Federation principles that provide ethical guidelines to the industry. Two research questions were examined: (1) ‘To what extent does advertising conform to the principles proposed by the American Advertising Federation?’ and (2) ‘Is conformity with the AAF principles within advertising agencies related to the actions of top management in those agencies?’ A mail survey of advertising professionals at various organizational levels formed the data base.