University Assignment: Applied Ethics and Sustainability Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of applied ethics and sustainability, focusing on the ethical considerations within advertising. The report is divided into two parts: Part A employs a consequential ethical analysis to evaluate the ethical question of deceptive and misleading advertisements, considering their impact on consumers, especially children, and addressing issues like gender stereotyping. Part B uses a non-consequential ethical analysis to examine the same ethical question through the lens of ethical principles, rules, and the Kantian perspective. The report explores the ethical implications of deceptive advertising, its impact on customer satisfaction and the psychology of children, and the role of advertisers in promoting ethical practices. The assignment also includes the discussion on ecological and carbon footprints.

Running head: APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................2
Consequential ethical analysis.....................................................................................................2
Part B...............................................................................................................................................5
Non-consequential ethical analysis..............................................................................................5
Assignment 2...................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................15

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Part A
Consequential ethical analysis
Question a:
When advertisements are not ethical and tries to mislead and becomes immoral?
Question b:
Advertisement is considered to be one of the vital aspects of business entity and even the
organizations around the world spend millions of dollars that promote their products through
advertisements so that they can promote the product globally. However, it can be seen that the
advertisers exaggerate about the benefits of a particular product and this renders the consumer to
come under pressure psychologically (Drumwright and Kamal 2016). The advertisers
intentionally persuade the customers to buy the advertised product. It has been seen that the
advertisements attacked the political, aesthetic, sociological and psychological grounds. While it
is important to note that ethical issues in advertisements include the deceptive advertisement,
advertising to children, sub minimal perception, women exploitation can effectively lead to the
moral deterioration of the society (Ullah and Hussain 2015). Sometimes it has been seen that
promotion of a product crosses the line and it either becomes unethical and immoral. The major
issues that arise from the advertisements are the advertisements that are deceptive and the
advertisements that are directed for the children. It is important to mention that its today’s world
the no one can actually trust another person and at the same time there are some organizations
that are have the sole purpose of only earning profit by providing the deceiving facts about the
products (bin Nooh et al. 2014).

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Question c:
The 6 key facts that are relevant to the analysis of the ethical question are as follows:
Gender stereotype and stereotyping sex- the advertisements that people see daily can
highlight that the advertisers do not portray the women and men realistically and the images that
can be seen highlight the class ideology of our society. Therefore, it is important to mention that
the advertisers need to consider about the use of the over sex appeal within the things that have
strong sexual controversial issue surrounding the issue. It is important to highlight that the sexual
stereotype and the gender are the two highly publicized in an unethical way and by the
application of the advertisement. The advertisement industry is seen to be guilty of perpetuating
the discrimination and promotes stereotyping (Ashraf et al. 2014).
Advertising to children- It is an important part and it highlights that the children do not
have the right experience or the maturity and due to this they get easily moulded by whatever
they are taught, listen and see. However, it can be said that some of the marketers take the
advantage by making the certain advertisements that target these children and the main purpose
is to earn more profits without taking any ethical responsibility. This could result into a affecting
the child's mind and it will impact the children both mentally and physically and result into
development of the bad habits (Shabbir, H.A., Maalouf et al. 2018).
Deceptive advertisement- organizations often tries to increase their profits by increasing
their sales and advertising false facts about their products (Il’ia et al. 2015).
Advertising message- the content of the advertisement is important and the impact of the
message will have a long-standing effect on the people. It is important to mention that people

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must follow the tone, format, style and these are associated with the execution of the
advertisement. Therefore, it is important to consider the different effects of advertising message
on the people (Ashraf et al. 2014).
Negative advertising- negative advertising includes the competitors in a negative light
and it is made to make the advertiser to look better. It is important to mention that advertising is
used in the business world as well as the political arena. The type of advertising is used in the
business world and the political arena. it is important to mention that nursing intervention causes
a bad impression in the mind (Ashraf et al. 2014).
Customer satisfaction- it is one of the aspects of the overall evaluation of the
performance. it has a strong and differ kind of effect on the customer loyalty due to deceptive
advertisements.
Question d:
The ethical act that is central to the ethical question that uses the utilitarianisms is by
forecasting the three negative and three positive aspects as follows:
Negative aspects-
 deceptive advertisements
 Damage to the child psychology
 Gender stereotyping (Fayyaz and Lodhi 2015)
Positive aspects-
 Advertise leads to product promotion
 Customer satisfaction increases

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 Social benefits (Frunza, Grad and Frunza 2016)
Question e:
It can be said that the when both the positive and the negative aspects are taken into
account, the positive effects surpass the negative effects. Therefore, it can be said the social
development is the most desired impact due to advertisement (Jhally 2014).
Part B
Non-consequential ethical analysis
Question a:
Companies also forget the fact that the while in the midst of earning profit they are
unaware of the performance of their product. Moreover, it has been found that the companies
take the advantage of the problems that people are facing and accrue benefits by misleading the
customer through the deceptive references. many companies promote their products that it can
solve the problems faced by their customers, however such products do not exist and they are
deceptive from the part of the company (Shultz 2014).
Question b:
The act that is central to the ethical question is the unethical but advertising is a lawful
way, personal and truthful ethics.
Unethical but advertising is a lawful way- unethical advertising but conducted in lawful
way remains outside the enforcement of law. Therefore, it can be said as a self- regulation. It can

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be said that the ethical advertising takes in to account of the intuitive knowledge of wrong and
righty and it is commonly accepted as an innate nature (Frunza, Grad and Frunza 2016).
Personal ethics and truth- it is important to note that the highest personal ethics and
truthfulness are the major themes that shape the thinking and the aspects of practices and
principles of advertising ethics. It is important to mention that the concepts of wrong and right
are based on the moral relativism and there are no moral equivalence relating to wrong and right
(Nill and Aalberts 2014).
Question c:
Deceptive advertisement can be described as the false advertisements and it is used by the
manufacturers to use the blatant, untrue misleading and confusing statements during the
promotion of a product. it is important to mention that the advertisers take the benefit of the
problems of the people and the inabilities of the women and the children Therefore it can be said
to be an unethical and it can deceive people. The deceptive marketing is considered to actually a
morally questionable thing and it takes into the account of the misinterpretations and morally
questionable as well. The facts are considered to be ethically wrong as well. While it is important
to highlight that it is not right to take advantage of the problems of the customers and mislead
them to a situation where the promises made by false advertisements are not fulfilled (Jhally
2014).
Question d:
i) The specific rule that authorizes the deceptive advertisement in the question is that when
advertisements become unethical, and it is the central to the question. It is important to mention
that when advertisements are based on the false claims and promises then it can be termed as the

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deceptive. The usage of false information and promises contributes solely to have a negative
impact on the customers and the ones that are associated with the usage of the specific product
(Daems, De Pelsmacker and Moons 2019.).
ii) The general rule that can that can authorise the act central to the ethical question is the
deceptive advertisement turns deceptive once a customer buys such a product and it affects the
health and mind of the customers. While it is important to mention that deceptive advertisement
deals with the deception of the customers that are purchasing a product.
iii) The general rule is not self- contradictory because the buying a product that is inherently
deceive and lacks the character tics of a proper product will actually be termed as a deceptive
product.
iv) The general rule does not violate the Kant's practical imperative because the thing that is
wrong is actually wrong and it is important to understand the values as well as the organizations
are trying to fool and deceive the customer which is actually against the mortality and it will be
considered as immoral and unethical. There is no other issue of violation of the Kant’s absolute
moral rules because according to Kant a white thing is actually a white and black is actually a
black (Wood 2017).
v) The general rule is not contrary to its fundamental purpose because the Kant's perspectives are
very clear and it is based on the entirely and in-depth analysis of the what was present in front.
The Kant’s philosophy highlights to treat humans as humans and not as means of earning money.
Whereas, the Kant’s rule is exclusively applicable in all the aspects where the deceptive
advertising (Westphal 2014).

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vi) It is ethical according to Kant; Kant’s ethical system considers humans as an individual and it
deters the usage of the humans as means.
Question e:
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that deceptive advertising is
one of the major issues that have harmed women, men and children and it has also hampered the
psychology of the children. According to Kant, it is important to mention that deceptive
advertisement is a means of utilizing humans and their needs and issues (Klemme 2014).

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Assignment 2
Question 1:
Question 2:
a) Ecological footprint is the biological rea requited by each and every individual that that are
required to satisfy the everyday requirements of a person and it involves the consumption and
survival as well. It is important to mention that the ecological footprint can be measured in terms
of the global hectares (gha) and this means the area that is biologically productive and it includes
the world average productivity. It is important to highlights that a hectare is equivalent to 10,000
metre square and it is almost equal to 2.5 acres. It can be said that earth has a total of 1.7 global
hectares that is present for each of the individual. While it can be said that the productive are on
earth is measured by the adding the total area and dividing the same the total number of people.
After using the online calculator, it can be said that the resultant ecological footprint is 9 and this

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means that I will require 5.23 times more space than a usual human and it will exceed the
minimum number of the space required for consumption and survivability (Mancini et al. 2016).
b) carbon footprint is highlighted as the greenhouse gases that are produced by indirectly or
directly and it is contributed by the human itself and this is expressed in terms of the carbo
dioxide (CO2). When I have used the online calculator, the resultant data have highlighted that
my carbon footprint is 14.6 tonnes per year. While it can be highlighted that the carbon for print
is actually measured in terms of the emission of the carbon dioxide and the carbon footprint is
measured in terms of a given time frame. carbon dioxide emission can be designated as the major
contributor of the to the global warming and this majority of the carbon dioxide emission is
contributed alone by the fossil fuel combustion. As per the research conducted by scientists, it
can be said that a tree sequesters an average of 88 pound of carbon dioxide in a year. Therefore,
it can be said that 332 trees will be required to sequester a total of 14.6 tons of carbon dioxide.
However, this much carbon dioxide generation is due to my activity and usage of products that
have been done throughout the year (Onat, Kucukvar and Tatari 2014).
c) The results have highlighted that my ecological footprint is 9 global hectares, and my carbon
footprint is 14.6 tonnes per year. The percentage of the total carbon footprint is 55 percent. When
considering the consumption by category it can be said that the food category is 1.8 global
hectare, shelter is 0.8 global hectare, Mobility is 1.2 global hectare, Goods is 3.4 global hectare,
services will require by 1.7 global hectare. While at the same time, it can be said that the
d) Comparison by the land type will provide another analysis of the of the utilization of the land
type. The carbon foot print is the largest and it includes about 5 global hectares, fishing grounds
by 0.2 global hectares, grazing land by 0.2 global hectares, cropland by 2 global hectares, forest
products by 1.2 global hectares, and built up land by 0.4 global hectares. Therefore, it can be

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highlighted that the in the consumption category goods contribute the highest (3.4 global
hectares) and in the land type category carbon footprint contributes about 5 global hectares.
Thus, the carbon foot print is highly contributed by the excessive usage of the goods, services
and food.
Question 3:
The four major causes that can be designated as unsustainable and it will cause more
issues like not using appliances that are of standard quality, and is not efficient; not using the fuel
efficient care and it can lead to the generation of more amount of carbo dioxide, not using the
public transport or car- pooling during travel; while I do not use the any recycled plastics for my
daily usage.
Question 4:
The biggest and the largest source of the ecological footprint is because I am using goods
or electronic equipment and appliances that are not of good quality and are not efficient as well.
It is important to mention that the efficient appliances are one of the rarest and it provides a lot of
options to save electricity. Furthermore, I am also not using any renewable sources of energy for
the home appliances and this designates that I am using excess of energy inefficient appliances.
The consumption of more amount of energy can lead to an increased amount of release of
greenhouse gases and it can hamper the environment. The energy consumption is rate and
volume is high and this highlights that I am using the technologies that is putting pressure on the
environment and due to this the online calculator is showing an increased number of carbo foot
print and ecological footprint (Zhao, Zeng and Yuan 2015).
Question 5: