Ethics of in-game advertisement

Abstract: Advergaming is a new type of medium for advertising. It is primarily used by companies targeting children and adolescents. However, there are some ethical issues in Advergaming highlighted by existing scholars. In the primary and secondary studies in this dissertation, it was found that Advergaming comprises deception by positioning simple products (like soft drinks and food) as performance and power stimuli, which is non-compliance against even the basic empirical theories about ethics in advertising. It was also found that companies use the emotions, arousals and stimuli of children to promote their products and also use violent events, unsocial behaviours, negative language, facial expressions, bullying or vindictiveness to make the games more attractive. Companies have also been promoting junk food disguised as power and stimuli enhancers to children. This is very harmful for the children. The study has made recommendations on how parents should deal with this problem and how should they spread the knowledge in the society. The study recommends that the parents should use a permit only policy to choose and permit Advergaming links on computers used by children and adolescents. Moreover, the study also recommends that parents should actively persuade the Advergaming companies to capture their needs and make Advergaming accordingly. For example, the parents can persuade the companies (through their feedback channels) to make educative Advergames. However, the parents should strictly block the Advergames that promote unhealthy eating and drinking habits and harmful behaviours. The parents should spread the knowledge to as many people as they can through personal contacts.