Ethics on the corporate websites of the main advertising agencies in Spain

Abstract

Although a significant number of studies have been carried out in relation to the ethical criteria of advertising messages in Spain, little or no research has been done on the corporate ethics of advertising agencies. Based on a content analysis methodology, the research presented here provides a twofold account of the ethical dimension of agency self-advertising on the Internet by reading (1) corporate ethics statements and (2) corporate identity statements. The results of such reading disclose that only a minimal percentage of companies is bound by particular ethical commitments and only one advertising agency makes explicit reference to ethical concerns in its corporate identity statement