One aspect of ethics in advertising is the concept of pure truth or useful truth. Pure truth very often cannot illustrate the product's best qualities, for example. Volvo cars are built on a steel cage which makes them safer than cars that are not constructed this way.
Therefore, in order to illustrate this truth about Volvo, the company has to formulate advertising in a way that will get the customer's attention and convey this very important message, about Volvo's superior construction.
So Volvo has to stage a crash of some kind to compare their car to other makes and models to illustrate how the Volvo will hold up and protect the passengers. This is known as useful truth in advertising. Even though the ad is rigged to make sure the Volvo comes out of the simulated accident intact, the ad is still ethical and essentially true.
"Volvo's ad agency thought this would be a great idea for a commercial. So they reinforced the beams inside the car to stand repeated assaults by the monster truck. When this came out in the press, Volvo was pilloried and the ad agency got fired, ultimately going out of business. Did that serve them right? Or was it a bum rap? In real life, a Volvo would stand up to one squashing by a monster truck. No question the TV demo was rigged. But what it showed was the truth."
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