ETHICAL ADVERTISING RESEARCH STANDARDS - 3 CASE-STUDIES

Demands for major changes in the regulation of advertising have come forth as a result of the December, 1991 publication of three articles concerning the cartoon character Joe Camel. The articles all appeared in the same issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and received extensive coverage in major newpapers and magazines. This paper examines each article to determine its conformance with 15 ethical standards gleaned from various associations and journals; these standards represent the accepted professional norms of conduct for social science research. There is also a closer examination of one of the studies using discovery material from a law suit against the R.J. Reynolds firm. This affords a unique opportunity to examine the ethical standards used in that study. Five reviewers from different disciplines were asked to independently evaluate each of the papers. The results revealed major concerns about the quality of each study. When these reviews are laid against the ethical guidelines for social science research, it appears there were major flaws in the conduct of all three. Particularly highlighted are the advocacy nature of the research and serious questions concerning reliability and validity. Additional concern about one of the studies is raised by the litigation discovery material, as there is evidence of pre-determined results, non-reporting of conflicting data, and ''adjusting'' of the sample to produce desired results consistent with researchers' pre-conceived theories.