Advertising Ethics and Professional Standards in the Nigerian Advertising Industry

This study examines advertising ethics and professional standards in the Nigerian advertising industry, assessing industry-wide compliance with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria's standards and the ethical challenges facing advertising practitioners in contemporary practice. Advertising ethics encompasses truthfulness, fairness, social responsibility, and non-exploitation of vulnerable groups, all of which are increasingly tested by digital advertising formats, performance pressure, and inadequate enforcement mechanisms. This study uses a mixed-method design combining a survey of 95 advertising practitioners from leading agencies in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt with content analysis of 150 advertising campaigns across television, digital, and outdoor media evaluated against ARCON standards. Industry associations including AAAN and LASAA contribute perspectives through key informant interviews with eight senior officials. Findings reveal that deceptive advertising claims, particularly for health and financial products, constitute the most frequently observed ethical violation, present in 28 percent of analysed campaigns. Stereotyping of gender and ethnicity in advertising is identified as prevalent but rarely challenged through regulatory complaint mechanisms. Digital advertising receives the least oversight, with influencer marketing and sponsored content existing in largely unregulated spaces. Advertising practitioners report knowledge of ethical standards but significant agency-client commercial pressure to compromise on ethical guidelines for campaign performance. The study concludes that Nigerian advertising ethics enforcement requires stronger regulatory capacity and industry self-regulation mechanisms. It recommends mandatory ethics training for ARCON registration renewal and development of a digital advertising ethics code.

Keywords: advertising ethics, ARCON, Nigeria, professional standards, advertising regulation.