A CHARACTER ETHICS APPROACH TO PURPOSE WASHING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES ADVERTISING: THE CASE OF ONE GOOD THING ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Noel Murray
Chapman University

ABSTRACT

This study uses a Character ethics framework to analyze purpose-washing in financial
services advertising. Advertisers increasingly face a balancing tightrope. They must navigate
between pressures to publicly side with the core values of their customers on social issues versus
risk stigmatization backlash when accused of hypocrisy. A recent ad campaign in the financial
services industry, One Good Thing, is subject to a character ethics analysis. This study asks
whether purpose-washing undermines moral discourse. The Character ethics framework offers
guidelines for business ethicists and practitioners to determine whether advertising to promote the
firm’s corporate social initiatives (CSI) is ethical. The normative quality of character ethics makes
it uniquely suitable for applications in CSI-related advertising. The paper’s objectives are to apply
the Character ethics framework to one of the more contemporary and controversial ethical issues
in current advertising, purpose-washing, to introduce a character-based ethics model adapted for
a case study application in financial services advertising, and to illustrate how the character-
based ethics approach can illuminate issues of purpose-washing, stigmatization, and serve as a
decision-making tool. We conclude that character ethics gives us a robust framework to evaluate
the ethics of a corporation’s CSIs.

Keywords: purpose washing, inconsistency, public persona, private self, character ethics, stigmatization, corporate
social initiatives, financial services advertising.