Marketing is probably the organizational function with more visibility and it is constantly being put under discussion from the ethics point of view. Marketing practices have been historically criticized, making the analysis of its ethical aspects an important and necessary topic in the academic environment. There are basically two categories of questions concerning marketing ethics: the first one is related to the capitalist system as a whole and discusses the supposed materialist stimulus developed by marketing; the second one has a more practical emphasis and is focused on marketing activities such as pricing, advertising and sales. Both of these categories are constituted of many points of views and there is no consensus about them; ethics is a complex and subjective concept and tends to be interpreted according to the circumstances and personal perceptions. As a result, marketing and business players move in an amoral zone, letting to the market and the society the task to judge them.
marketing ethics; ethics discussion; consumerism; seller sovereign; customer sovereign
