Microsoft Shares Ethical Advertising Principles

MJ DePalma of Microsoft Advertising has shared an article highlighting ethical advertising principles and 9 steps to build trust.

DePalma says, “Ethics are a set of moral principles that govern a person’s or organization’s behavior, or the conducting of an activity. Ethical advertising is about truth, fairness, and equity in messaging and consumer experience. An ethical advertisement is honest, accurate, and strives for human dignity. It also considers the advertising environments that are chosen for placement, and it examines potential for data bias in analytics.

Based on the latest Edelman 2020 Trust BarometerOpens in new window, ethics are more important to creating trust in companies than competence. Transparency is the most important ethical guiding principle, as well as the need to conduct ourselves, our businesses, and our relationships with consumers in a fair, honest, and forthright manner.

Percent of predictable variance in trust explained by each dimension:

Pie chart depicting survey results that articulate the importance of varying drivers of trust in companies. 76 percent said ethics, which are comprised of integrity (49 percent), purpose (12 percent), and dependability (15 percent), are most important, while 24 percent said competence, which solely is comprised of ability, is most important.