Advertising as long as it's an expressive art form is completely acceptable. Manipulating the system in order to target a specific market is completely unethical. In the ethically diverse place of the United States, advertising is taken to a whole new level. Facebook even screens for what each user puts on, each of the ads are screened and targeted for gender, age, religion, and sexual preference. I posted before about toxic sludge each, which basically focused on the grey area of advertising. Grey meaning in which advertisers write news coverage and footage, such as pharmaceutical companies, in order to achieve publicity about new drugs.

In the United States it is common practice to sensationalize to defeat competition, also to write and produce footage for the news and persent it as fact. Tabacco wouldn't be the notorious advertising kings if they didn't give falsified information to doctors in past and then promote it as fact. In Ken Garlands Manifesto he make note that designers should be aware of who they are designing for, political and financial agenda. Viral marketing and Guerrilla marketing can be construed as brain washing but to me can be a valued asset. The asset should belong to events, not to get people to like them on Facebook. It's overwhelming to have a team of Vodafone teenage employees ask you for your social security number. Guerrilla marketing belongs to party goers and musicians not in the corporate field. Viral marketing, on the other hand, is completely acceptable make a funny video on Youtube and people will watch.