Ethics of a Social Marketing Campaign: An Integrative Assessment Model

The social marketing campaign is a value-laden communicative process aiming to change individual behavior and public policy. Due to its normative nature and implications, this process has to be assessed for its ethicality. The existing evaluative matrices focus on corporate marketing, largely neglecting the public value aspect that nongovernmental organizations promote through social marketing campaigns. The integrative model proposed here assesses the ethicality of social marketing campaigns by non-profits. Its theoretical framework draws on Rawls's concept of veil of ignorance . The model is tested on the "I Stand with Planned Parenthood" campaign, demonstrating that it qualifies as an ethical campaign, even though some elements raise important questions.