Ethics is a bit harder to define. It has to do with an inherhent sense of right and wrong. Ethics refer to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, and fairness. Ethical standards include those that include virtues of honesty, compassion and loyalty. Ethics create a framework for determining right versus wrong. They are not absolute rules.
Law is a system of rules, enforced through a set of institutions. It deals with rightness and wrongness of certain actions. Law also raises important and complex issues regarding equality, fairness and justice. A law is a government rule, a decree handed by the authorities to punish those who disobey.
Self – regulation, Ethics and Law clearly have different ends. The purpose of ethics is to make people good.
The purpose of law on the other hand is to maintain order in society by upholding human rights and human good. Law is not there to enforce ethics but to make it possible for people to live ethically. Some say that law has no business or connection with morality at all.
All three – Self – regulation, Ethics and Law – work for the protection of the interest of the consumers. Advertising is a social firm where creativity, consumer needs and business interest meet. All three work towards the well being of society. Advertising requires a balance between consumer’s interest, creativity and ethics.
The efforts by Self – regulation do not often stop malpractices in advertising or the creation of misleading advertising objectionable ads. However the ASCI, sees to it that these ads are looked into Ethical issues are