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1

Ethical SEO


Mike Gracia Internet Business/Internet Business 2008-01-01
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Ethical SEO or Search Engine Optimization if you prefer, is the process of optimizing a website with the purpose of raising its positions in the Google search engine.

The actual process of SEO can be quite a complicated one, and can vary depending on the actual website in question, and the keyterms being sought.

The various techniques can include but are not limited to, Meta tags and Header tags, keyword density, and alt tag optimization. As well as this, Off Page optimization is taken into consideration.

Off Page SEO techniques involve securing, maintaining and growing relevant backlinks, with certain configurations in the anchor text. This can have a great effect in raising the rankings of specific keyterms.

Because of the positive effect of building backlinks on search engine rankings, some website owners have taken to actually buying backlinks in an attempt to raise their rankings.

Google has been known to consider this technique as manipulation of its algorithm, and may have been concerned that this may result in its search engine bringing less relevant results.

This has led Google to try to penalise people for buying backlinks.

Some people feel that Google has stepped out of line in trying to penalise webmasters for doing this, but there is another way of looking at things;

The reason Google does not want people buying links to raise their websites rankings is that the reason building backlinks raises a websites rankings is that each backlink is considered as a vote for it. If people are buying backlinks, then in effect they are buying votes! This is something that is frowned upon in most sections of society!

It is still possible to carry out Off Page SEO campaigns however. It is just that the methods have changed. Instead of trying to trick Google, it is best to work with methods Google does not frown upon. This means having quality content on your website (okay, we know this is On Page seo technically, but it does make the Off Page SEO easier!) Having good site content means that people will WANT to link to your website.

The next step is to get the message out that this high quality info is on your website. Some link building techniques can be used for this, but not in an attempt to manipulate Google, just to get the word out about your website then people will want to link to the great info they find!

Articles, press releases, guest blog interviews and RSS feeds are all great ways of doing this. This kind of specialist off page SEO is what we at kingpin-seo.co.uk consider Ethical SEO, as it is not intended to manipulate Google results at all; instead we give google exactly what it wants A website full of great relevant information that people will find useful, with info about the website in good positions on the web to start people talking about it, then backlinks should naturally build themselves.

A basic, but holistic way of looking at Ethical SEO is that for maximum effect, both ON PAGE and OFF PAGE SEO techniques need to be carried out together in a methodical way.


2

Ethical Marketing


Andrew Barnes Internet Business/Internet Marketing 2007-06-15
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Ethical Marketing

To sell a product well, it is very important to use powerful selling words to
really convey each and every little benefit that your product has to convince the
customer.
It is not uncommon to see words like unbelievable and phenomenal and
something along those lines in really great salesletters.

However, there are some marketers who intentionally use hyped-up descriptions to
sell off their products.
These marketers mislead customers into thinking that their products offer benefits
that do not really exist in reality.

At this point, it would be appropriate to quote a story that really happened:

One evening, a fellow marketer in my MSN Messenger list messaged me to check out
his newest salesletter for his product, an ebook on earning revenue with
contextual advertisement.
I logged on to his website and was drawn right into his sales copy!
The reason was the salesletter dived right into my desires and promised that
everything I have ever wanted can be obtained just by purchasing the said ebook
and executing whatever was inside.

The salesletter also made it seem that the author owned fleets of Mercedez Benz
cars, luxurious mansions and private yachts.

The problem was I know this particular marketer personally.
He is actually a 17 year old high school graduate, looking for a few quick bucks
by selling a little ebook he compiled with information collected from various
sources on the Internet.
My emergency alarm immediately kicked in and I can just imagine how many naïve
newbies might be fooled with the deceptive sales copy.

The sad but very real fact is that there are many scam artists online, waiting to
rip you off for your hard-earned money.
Hence, remember that the usual advice for consumers still apply online: use your
common sense.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

Remember, when you intend to purchase something over the Internet, do a basic
check-up on the merchant's website.
First and foremost, if you have even the slightest question on any of the features
of the product mentioned, email the merchant regarding your query and observe the
attitude with which he/she replies.
Customer support reveals a lot about the integrity of a business.

Finally, if you can't even find a support email on their website, click the Back
button and run away from the site at once!

Andrew E. Barnes has been successfully

developing Internet Marketing Websites for 4 years. Market-

Success.net The Ultimate Internet Marketing Portal. or send any email for >Membership details


3

Ethical SEO Firm


Vikas Malhotra Internet Business/Internet Marketing 2008-01-30
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We live in times when good search engine ranking has gained remarkable significance for every type of business. This has led to high demand for SEO companies and SEO experts. These are several freelancers and companies to help you achieve a better search engine ranking. However, this surge in demand for SEO experts has led to a lot of fake and unethical companies enter the array. Due to these unethical practices, some of the web sites have also experienced a drop in their search engine positioning. In such a scenario, we at Mosaic Services, strictly advocate and practice fair SEO methods and techniques. To put it straight, we are proud to be an ethical SEO firm.

There are some factors web site owners should be aware of while on a lookout for an ethical SEO firm.

Watch out for those mails You may often receive those mails in your inbox that promise you high search engine ranking in a day's time. Well, this is something similar to reaching moon in a day. So, do not be fooled by such firms that offer fake search engine positioning. These mails are often sent by companies that look to make quick money by showing fake ways of getting top search engine rankings.

Guaranteeing a top search engine ranking There are millions of SEO firms that promise you number one search engine ranking on search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo and others. However, you have to actually beware of such firms, as there can be no guarantee but only a committed and sincere effort to achieve it, and we at Mosaic Services aspire to achieve the best possible search engine positioning services for our clients.

Understanding the SEO process Every SEO assignment has a definite process to enhancing your search engine positioning. As a customer you need to be aware of the various methods and techniques that the SEO firm would be following to ensure that you get a good search engine position. An ethical SEO firm would make the whole SEO process transparent and give you details of the process. An unethical SEO firm, on the other hand, would not like to disclose such facts.

Do not go for "link popularity" schemes Link popularity is often a futile exercise that does little to enhance your web site's search engine positioning. Beware of such unrealistic promises.

Summary: An ethical SEO firm would provide you with a definite process and promises that seem realistic. Mosaic Services is an ethical SEO firm that realistically provides a high search engine position.

Vikas Malhotra is a successful Internet marketing consultant, having helped over 900 businesses to increase their visibility and sales online. He is a web branding expert with experience in online media planning, buying, and search engine marketing. To know more about him, visit http://sem.mosaic-service.com.


4

Consumer 101 Ethical Investment


Indiann Davinos Business/Business 2008-05-04
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Money Makes The Arms Go Round

Do you give money to the arms trade or to industries destroying our environment? Most of us would be shocked and indignant if accused of doing this. But traditionally, when we invest we give up the right to decide where our money goes and our hard earned cash could be propping up oppressive regimes without us knowing. Ethical investment gives us the chance to control the money we invest and prove that profit and principles can work together.

Ethical investment is not a new idea. The Quakers in the 18th century used it to make a stand against the slave trade refusing to invest money in any business linked to it. More recently it was used to attack South Africa's apartheid with the state of California withdrawing $50 billion from the country. With credentials like these it is easy to see why investment can be a powerful tool for social change.

Thinking ethically means not compromising on your values or your pocket. For example, the Ethical Investment Research Service concluded ethical funds have a lower total risk then those without ethical criteria.

There are broadly two types of ethical investing. The first is screening the companies you want to invest with to make sure their practices don't clash with your principles. These can include bad environmental practises, the tobacco or alcohol industries, pornography, anti-trade union practises, or the arms trade. In addition to these concerns Muslims may prefer not to invest in financial institutions where there is interest-based gain. Secondly you may wish to actively channel your money to companies you approve of. These could be companies with good labour practices and safety records, organic farms or alternative energy companies, or those who benefit local communities.

An independent financial adviser will help you find companies, tailored to your specific agenda. You may, for example, want to prioritise not supporting companies who work with oppressive regimes, but mind less about investing in the tobacco industry. Or you may not mind about alcohol production but be vehemently opposed to your money funding environmentally irresponsible corporations. Whatever you decide independent financial help means you can place your money where it won't damage your conscience.

Why not start with your bank? Smile.co.uk is the Internet bank of the co-operative bank. It not only has specific ethical and environmental policies, but also fantastic rates on current accounts. They also have a huge range of ethical investments options. Triodos bank only gives business loans to organisations involved in sustainable development projects and savers are given the option of specifically channelling their cash into their preferred sector, whether this is social housing projects or organic farming. The Ecology building society uses your money to provide mortgages for energy efficient houses, ecological renovation or for rescuing derelict properties.


5

Importance Of Ethical SEOTechniques


Avdheshkumbhar Kumbhar Internet Business/Internet Business 2008-02-20
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Hundreds and thousands of people have made use of the Internet in a variety of ways, each in an attempt to subjugate its great power and potential to give profit and gain to users and businessmen. However, alongside the aims of these hardworking innovators and entrepreneurs are people who simply want to extort as much money from people in exchange for dubious products and services.

Web content is brought to a potential user by means of either direct recall of a particular service provider s website, or by blind searches done on various Internet search engine platforms made available by Internet software giants. By entering words, known as keywords relevant to the desired information, product, or service, into the search field, users can employ these blind searches to look for content closest to what they are looking for.

As is the practice, a search engine usually produces a list of websites matching the keywords provided by the user to a degree of relevance. These are ranked by relevance, quality of content, and sometimes, visitor votes that come in the form of a measure of frequency of visits by people who usually find the content useful to them.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method used by many businesses and entrepreneurs online in order to maximize the potential of the search engine by helping them rise in the ranks of the query response listings. SEO usually deals with organic searches, or those that need no payment to be listed among the list of likely matches to a client s keywords, as well as crawler search engines, which are search engines that literally crawl through web pages in search of relevant links and relations between pages in order to find relevant content.

Dubious figures in the Internet, however, have made use of the Internet to forward their own selfish desires, leading to an unethical use of the brilliant SEO model. This has led to a divergent field of SEO, called black hat SEO . In this method, various deceptive schemes are used in order to manipulate search engines and dupe customers by providing them with websites that are completely useless. This method is also called spamdexing .

Ethical SEO techniques also exist in the Internet. Before even going into details, the most important ideal behind ethical SEO techniques is in providing better service to clients, and allowing this satisfaction to become key in promoting the website.

What does it take for a method to become an ethical SEO technique?

There are various ways under the central guideline to achieve them.

The first one is creating quality content for the users. After all, no ethical SEO technique tries to get the better of any customer, or even harm them to the slightest extent. By providing quality content, users receive useful, timely, and secured information when they need it.

In order for that to be achieved, no amount of exaggeration or manipulation of the nature and content of the website is done to lead customers into believing that it contains the website relevant to their query. Ethical SEO does not employ any method that will mislead the customer into a site, and even offend the customer once he or she has found his or her way into the website.

Moreover, ethical SEO techniques do not, in any way, violate any laws as regards intellectual property rights, international law, or spamming laws implemented at every level of every way. This would include not claiming for their own products and services that are not theirs to sell or produce just so they can fool users into providing sensitive information through which they can extort money.

A website employing ethical SEO techniques will never try to exaggerate and reflect a company s image any more than how it should be portrayed; doing so, in effect, manipulates the customer into trusting a company based on falsity.

Relevant to various security issues existent on the Internet, one last measure of how ethical a SEO technique is lies in the protection of its customers on the basis of privacy agreements. In providing the service sought by the client, ethical SEO techniques protect the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information made known to them in confidence by their clients.

Both goals aim to achieve the same end of profit. However, the road diverges and one must pick one over the other. In the end, ethical SEO techniques allow for users to maximize the profit they pay without impinging on the rights of other people an manipulating others; this by far is the best option to go.


6

Ethical Seo: Ethical SEO for Enduring Business Results


Steve Waganer Internet Business/SEO 2007-10-23
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But they forget that working unethically will land them in trouble. Ethical SEO practices are the best way to create a position in the search engines.

Ethical SEO is the proper way to increase traffic to your website. Basically, ethical SEO is concerned with the SEO techniques in general. One should always be careful about the methods used in the SEO business; it is because practicing illegitimate means will lower your business. It is always mandatory that the ethical SEO firm should have valid reasons for their search engine strategies. Even the support data offered by them has to be appropriate.

The main aim of SEO business is to improve the links of an online business, on the search engines. Ethical SEO is concerned with designing the best strategies to attract various customers through search engine links. The main advantage of the ethical SEO practice is that, it can give an authoritative place to your website in the search engines. It is because the ethical practice will not include any illegal means of advertising the website. Moreover, it should be noted that ethics always pays good in the long run, while unethical means can sink your business.

One of the important parts of ethical SEO practice is the type of content present in your site. The content always decides the number and type of visitors that will gain access to your website. The content has to be highly informative and catchy so that the visitors are able to get the complete information about a product or service. One should always take extra care about the content as it should not look like a school essay. Mainly, the content helps to enhance the popularity of your website. Another thing to be noticed in the matter of content is that it should be saleable. Saleable means that it should give appropriate information about the products, so that the visitors can turn into purchasers.

Ethical SEO requires a lot of hard work and patience. It is not like an unethical practice that can make you available on the search engines within few minutes and reaping nothing for you. An ethical SEO practice will take some time to develop each and every possible strategy to get implemented in a permanent way. The implementation of ethical strategies will bring loads of visitors to your online business. Moreover, the ethical SEO practice will give you highly beneficial and reliable results.

One has to be extra cautious about the matching of titles and its content in the site. If the title on the home page is not matching the content in the article page, then you have a problem. This is a problem because the visitor will search for the detailed matter of the keyword. If the content does not match, the visitors will never return to your website. This will mean a loss to your online business. So, it is always better to practice ethical SEO methods.


7

Ethical Psychic Readings


Frederick Gimino Society/Society 2008-02-23
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Giving a psychic reading requires much more than being able to write a book, be on a talk show, or make outrageous claims. Giving a high quality psychic reading requires innate ability, compassion, and common sense.

The innate psychic ability present in all of us is more apparent in some then others. It is believed that heightened psychic abilities may be passed down from generation to generation often running in families. Heightened psychic awareness allows for an accurate psychic reading by allowing the reader to fine tune into the spiritual realm.

In addition without compassion for the individual receiving the reading the psychic reader can easily cause more harm then good. For example since psychic readings can never be 100% accurate with a high confidence interval for precision giving a reading that states someone is in emanate danger does not only show lack of compassion but lack of morale fiber.

However, with the right level of compassion a psychic can be an invaluable force for good. Providing closure for example when the psychic reading recipient has a love one pass or their relationship comes to an abrupt end. The level of responsibility and accountability for the psychic should be no less than any other expert advice giver.

Although there are no laws dictating morale or ethical obligation for a psychic to provide sound counsel every spiritual advisor should adopt a morale and ethical code. When developing a code of conduct some topics to address would be confidentiality and appropriate advice.

Obviously confidentiality is an important concept because unless a person is threatening to hurt themselves or others as advisors we should treat their personal information with decorum as they are confiding their deepest most intimate feelings and issues to us. For example to write a book about the psychic readings you have given, in the past, without that individuals express permission is a gross ethical violation of that individuals expected right to confidentiality. I feel that pop talk show psychics are the worst when it comes to this area of ethical conduct.

Appropriate advice issues pertain to whether or not you should give a psychic reading and what if anything you should disclose. During the course of your advice giving career many will come wanting you to impart insight into the spiritual realm. The question then becomes should you. It is not always ethical to use your gifts to give advice especially if the person may benefit more from psychological counseling then a psychic reading. Essentially you must no when to say no. Disclosing information is also something that should be looked at carefully. Weighing the risk versus the benefit of disclosing information during a reading should always come to mind before imparting advice. Essentially think before you speak and avoid blurting out your reading.

Finally, use common sense. If an individual is becoming Dependant on psychics to live their lives refer them to an appropriate 12-step program for addictions. Preying on the mentally ill and weak is what has given the psychic community such a bad name over the years. In addition if you feel your reading may not be the most accurate make sure you tell the individual that lest they make a decision based on your advice that initiates a catastrophic event in their lives.

So, barring the pop psychic talk show groupie book writers who claim to know everything an honest compassionate psychic reading can be given by most spiritualists. Keeping truth, compassion, ethics, and morality in mind a psychic should be able to give quality advice with compassion, accuracy, precision, and confidence and help restore the good name of quality psychic readers across the world.


8

Ethical Fashion Designers


davinos greeno Shopping/fashion 2007-06-20
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During her London fashion week show in February 2003, Katherine Hamnett, the award winning British designer sent models up the catwalk in T-shirts that read No War, Blair Out. Get Ethical found out more about her fashion crusade...

How are you involved in ethical fashion?

I have always been an environmentalist and with three children, I am naturally concerned about their future. Relating to fashion, I think it really started in 1990 when I commissioned some research on the impact of the clothing and textiles business on the environment. I was horrified at what I found. The first issue was that there are 10 thousand deaths every year due to conventional cotton agriculture, mostly from pesticide poisoning. It was a real shock, because we designers thought we weren?t doing any actual damage using natural crops when actually we were having this colossal impact.

I did a talk in New York telling people involved in the clothing industry about this. I think that was the start of the whole organic cotton trend. It took many directions including the whole eco-look, which became ugly and unaffordable. People don?t like clothes that look like charity.

I?ve carried on the research and the picture now is even blacker. You cant separate agriculture from the clothing and textile industry, just like you cant separate gold mining from the jewellery industry. The clothing and textiles industry is probably the third or fourth largest industry in the world; add that to the agricultural industry (cotton and sheep farming for example) then there is a huge impact on the environment.

How do you tie these issues into your designs?

First of all you have to research all of your raw materials and be responsible. You have to look at what impact the material has on the environment. There are also wider implications such as the slave labour involved in the clothing industry. You have to support fair labour.

Organic natural fibres are the obvious choice for designers, where do man- made fibres fit into ethical design?

There are certain things that I think you have to avoid. I avoid viscose because, although you obtain eco certification on it, the actual process is carried out in the Third World using vast amounts of sulphuric acid, which is then dumped into the environment causing massive pollution in countries such as India and Mexico. You really have to do your homework.

What we need is a website with a global directory of sustainable materials, traditional skills, sustainable processing? even for buttons. A site that does it all and is readily available. It would be a very useful tool for the industry.

It seems that you get very involved as an individual outside of your designs.

Yes, at the moment I am involved in a project with the Intermediate Technology Development Group and the Royal College of Art, setting up a PhD research project to do with something called a widget. It boils sea water with solar energy to produce fresh water and electricity. This has got fantastic potential for drinking water and irrigation. You have to think that at the bottom of the supply chain there are people dying of pesticide poisoning, so by providing clean drinking water you give something back. And if you take a long-term view of the clothing and textiles industry, you have to protect the supplies of raw materials. I think you have to treat the whole process holistically.

How do feel about the way UK design colleges deal with ethics?

I don?t think they do it hard enough. I think you have to teach people to design responsibly. As a designer everything that you produce is man made and its your responsibility as a human being to make sure that what you are doing isnt going to mess things up further. Right now the planet's dying and its dying fast.

How do you balance a profitable business with ethical issues?

You have to try very hard and you must be competitive. There is no pity in the market. It's much easier to be a slob, we could all be slobs and use anything, fur, PVC? you name it. But who said designing was meant to be easy.

How can the average consumer support the move towards cleaner clothes?

I think they should be asking questions, asking: what is it made out of? is it certified organic? Also consumers should ask where it?s made. You need to avoid places that dont have good labour laws.

Most ethical fashion companies seem to be setting up on the web. Why isnt there more availability on the high street?

Mail order is good and its cheaper. The web is good, you have your independence and I think that is very important. You find companies involved with huge conglomerates can have their hands tied on environmental issues. Its very hard to separate the environment from politics and you will find that the slightest whisper of any political implication and any company which has a backer won?t be allowed to do anything. Their backers will silence them, because the conventional business wisdom is that you shut up about such things and get on with it.

How can ethical fashion become more competitively priced?

I think what is needed is to go along the same lines as organic food to achieve that level of cool chic. We need to give organic clothing a gourmet market; it needs to be seen as an affordable luxury.

Organic fabric is available. It is cheap. Sixty per cent of a farmers expense is agrochemicals so farming organically is actually cheaper. However, theres all these agents jumping on the eco-bandwagon and adding extra amounts, like a dollar per pound, onto the organic cotton prices. There are farmers in Zimbabwe who are growing cotton organically although they havent got a market for it and they are selling it to the conventional cotton mills. They are growing it organically because its cheaper. We can get there!

Davinos Greeno works for the organic clothes and ethical jewellery directory that lists 100s of Organic and Ethical Companies and we also have Recycle Articles for you to read or publish.


9

SEO An Ethical Appeal


Scott Lindsay Internet Business/Internet Business 2007-05-16
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If you use a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm to help increase your sites visibility to search engines you should be aware that one of the simplest ways unscrupulous firms use to manage a meteoric rise to the number one spot is simply through Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.

Essentially you pay an SEO firm to place advertising in such a way as to allow your site to be ranked in first place (preference being granted to the highest bidder). In the end, the SEO firm honored their commitment to move your ranking to number one, but they often do so using a method you could do yourself (advertising) while doing little in the way of long term results. As soon as you stop paying for SEO services, the advertising goes away and so does your ranking.

The rise of illegitimate SEO firms has grown tremendously making it difficult for quality SEO firms to do business in a trusting environment.

Legitimate firms want you to ask questions. They are happy to provide testimonials and may even go so far as to list the services they provided for each client. Ethical SEO firms will help you understand the relationship between the content of your website and the correlation to improved long-term search rankings.

Quality SEO does not resort to hidden words, keyword stuffing or other black hat marketing techniques. A professional SEO consultant understands their job is to help search engines define the best material on the web and help their client become one of the best providers of content for the web.

This double-edged approach takes into account the genuine needs of both client and the Word Wide Web community at large. By attempting to bolster the desires of both, the ethical SEO firm is seem as a partner in trust for both parties.

Managing SEO techniques is something that can be learned (and many site owners are), but if you're going to search for someone to assist you it is in your long-term best interest to find a firm that really helps you and not one that simply props you up until they get paid.

It's not wrong to want quick results, which is why you can always develop your own PPC advertising program. However, you should view this scenario as a short-term solution. Ethical SEO development will assist you, but you may need to be patient while it gently, but consistently works to impress the search engines.


10

Ethical Pharmaceutical Meetings


Mandy Chagger Travel Leisure/Travel Leisure 2007-03-27
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Pharmaceutical meetings are productive ways of conveying important technical information to the medical fraternity. Busy practitioners often find it difficult to set aside time at their clinics for industry representatives, and prefer to listen to presentations on new products and findings at venues away from their places of work. Speakers at pharmaceutical meetings may also be working doctors, making it necessary to have suitable and neutral venues at which peers can listen to actual experiences with new technologies. Senior doctors are particularly dependant on pharmaceutical meetings as an integral means of their continuing medical education. These are the major reasons for the convention of pharmaceutical meetings as a means of professional communication between sections of industry, medical practitioners, and consultants. Many sponsors of pharmaceutical meetings compete for the time and attention of doctors; with the result that the cream of the medical fraternity is careful about which invitations they accept.

The principles of ethical selling demand that pharmaceutical meetings are conducted with decorum. Sponsors must guard against turning these events into thinly disguised ways of unduly influencing prescription behavior. The industry is built on trust, and a sponsor who lavishes extraordinary hospitality on participating doctors is likely to be looked at askance, not just by leading members of the medical community, but by other sections of society, as well. Judgment matters, as much as resources and organizing abilities, when it comes to the best pharmaceutical meetings. These events may last for just an hour, as in the case of a brief presentation of a brand extension, or be spread over more than a day, as in the case of a presentation on a new technique, or a discussion on a complex subject with many controversial facets. There is a fine line to be drawn between catering to the basic needs of participating doctors, and abusing their attendance with garish and plush offerings, completely out of proportion to the technical information content on offer.

A single window solution is for an intending sponsor to use the services of a certified and fully resourced professional organizer of pharmaceutical meetings. Such an organization can take care of the myriad things which need to be coordinated for pharmaceutical meetings to run well, and use internal control systems to ensure that events are not staged in such an ostentatious manner that important doctors may take offence, or such that the image and credibility of a sponsor suffers. Not everyone is familiar with the conditions of the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) with respect to pharmaceutical meetings, but strict adherence to such guidelines pays off in the long run. Similarly, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has a code of conduct for pharmaceutical meetings, by which sponsors should abide in their own best interests.

The choice of venue is a primary decision required to be taken when all pharmaceutical meetings are first proposed. Luxury resorts and even entertainment complexes with facilities for gambling may offer tempting financial deals for off-season and off-peak hour events, but it is inappropriate to choose them for pharmaceutical meetings. Basic conference and presentation facilities should suffice for short presentations, and the lodgings in cases of overnight stays should be commensurate with the seriousness of such occasions. Money spent on deluxe amenities is likely to prove counter-productive with conscientious doctors, and would certainly violate the industry association code. The same thinking should apply to catering: regal banquets are never appropriate, and sponsors should not offer full meals when pharmaceutical meetings are brief with little information content. Finally, materials distributed for taking notes should not take forms of expensive gifts that can be interpreted as attempting to persuade prescription support for brands in ethically unacceptable ways.

The overall approach should be to arrange for participants which are adequate in terms of convenience, and which meet the norms of common courtesies, without giving any room for doubt that the sponsor seeks to undermine the professionalism of participating doctors in any way. Facilities and hospitality must be in proportion to the scientific value of information offered at pharmaceutical meetings. Professional organizations that arrange pharmaceutical meetings on a regular basis use standard operating procedures to ensure that these norms are met. They also have teams, separate from the ones making the arrangements, to check on compliance with relevant norms. Independent consultants with vast industry experience are used to certify that the organization has adequate systems and controls in place. The result is that sponsors can merely explain their requirements and objectives to these professional organizations, and then rely on them to arrange pharmaceutical meetings, which are informative, which the best doctors like to attend, and which build on corporate credibility, as well. Keeping large groups of doctors furnished with relevant technical information is crucial for optimal returns on research and development, and professionally run pharmaceutical meetings contribute to building sustainable competitive advantages.

11

Ethical Search Engine Optimization


Priyanshu Malhotra Internet Business/SEO 2008-04-19
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"Ethical Search Engine Optimization" applies to SEO techniques and not to SEO practitioners. SEO practitioners can conduct themselves ethically towards their clients but it does not suggest ethical SEO. Ethical search engine optimization specifies the SEO techniques that fall in line with the guidelines of a webmaster.

Any organization can better take care of their employees if the business owner has implemented their own ethical requirements. Ethics implies some sets of rules and guidance to which the company accepts and act in accordance with the norms of the business. Hence, all the tricks that do well in this task are called ‘ethical SEO’.

Ethical search engine optimization is an accurate way for increasing the traffic to your website. It is concerned with designing of the best strategies to catch the attention of various customers through search engine links. The most important advantage with the ethical SEO practice is that it provides you with an authoritative place in the search engines. The reason behind this is that it does not embrace any sort of illegitimate means when advertising a website.

Benefits of ethical search engine optimization:

  • Possibility of ranking for longer duration.
  • No human added & automated penalties by search engines.
  • Well optimize sites lead to companies paying to advertise on them.
  • Clients will come across to your website and stay for a longer period of time.


Hence, a site with unique and concise keyword rich meta tags, relevant content writing, highly structured site navigation, and user and search-engine friendly site and site devoid of deceptive techniques is called as ethical search engine optimization. Thus, through this strategy, company can generate substantial amount of Return On Investment (ROI).

12

What is Ethical Hacking?


Paul Walsh Computer/security 2007-11-20
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An Ethical Hacker is an expert hired by a company to attempt to attack their network and computer system the same way a hacker would. Ethical Hackers use the same techniques and tactics as those used by illegal hackers to breach corporate security systems. The end result is the company’s ability to prevent an intrusion before it ever occurs.

A company can’t know if their security system is solid unless they test it. It’s hard, though, for a company’s IT team to thoroughly ring out the system. Try as they might, the techs can’t go at the system with all the malicious or mischievous motives of a true illegal hacker. To thoroughly uncover vulnerabilities, the theory goes; you must examine your security system through the eyes of an illegal hacker.

The word hacking has strongly negative connotations, and, for the most part, rightly so. But ethical hacking is much different. It takes place with the explicit permission of the company whose system is being attacked. In fact, their “good guy” role is underscored by the nickname “white hat” Ethical Hackers have been given. The nickname is a throwback to old Westerns where the good cowboys could be identified by their white hats.

The company and the Ethical Hacker enter into a legally binding contract. The contract, sometimes called a “get out of jail free card,” sets forth the parameters of the testing. It’s called the “get out of jail free card” because it’s what harbors the Ethical Hacker from prosecution. Hacking is a felony, and a serious one at that. The terms of the agreement are what transform illegal behavior into a legal and legitimate occupation.

Once the hacker has exhausted his attempts, he reports back to the company with a list of the vulnerabilities he uncovered. The list in and of itself, however, is not particularly useful. What’s most valuable is the instructions for eliminating the vulnerabilities that the Ethical Hacker provides.

An Ethical Hacker works to uncover three key pieces of information. First, he determines what information an illegal hacker can gain access to. Next, he explores what an illegal hacker could do with that information once gained. Last, the Ethical Hacker ascertains whether an employee or staff member would be alerted to the break-in, successful or not.

At first it might sound strange that a company would pay someone to try to break into their system. Ethical hacking, though, makes a lot of sense, and it is a concept companies have been employing for years. To test the effectiveness and quality of product, we subject it to the worst case scenario. The safety testing performed by car manufacturers is a good example. Current regulatory requirements including HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, and SB-1386 and BS 799 require a trusted third party to check that systems are secure.

In order to get the most out of the assessment, a company should decide in advance the nature of the vulnerabilities they’re most concerned with. Specifically, the company should determine which information they want to keep protected and what they’re concerned would happen if the information was retrieved by an illegal hacker.

Companies should thoroughly assess the qualifications and background of any Ethical Hacker they are considering hiring. This individual will be privy to highly sensitive information. Total honesty and integrity is of the utmost importance.


13

Importance of Ethical SEO Techniques


Avdhesh Internet Business/SEO 2007-06-29
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Hundreds and thousands of people have made use of the Internet in a variety of ways, each in an attempt to subjugate its great power and potential to give profit and gain to users and businessmen. However, alongside the aims of these hardworking innovators and entrepreneurs are people who simply want to extort as much money from people in exchange for dubious products and services.

Web content is brought to a potential user by means of either direct recall of a particular service provider’s website, or by blind searches done on various Internet search engine platforms made available by Internet software giants. By entering words, known as ‘keywords’ relevant to the desired information, product, or service, into the search field, users can employ these blind searches to look for content closest to what they are looking for.

As is the practice, a search engine usually produces a list of websites matching the keywords provided by the user to a degree of relevance. These are ranked by relevance, quality of content, and sometimes, ‘visitor votes’ that come in the form of a measure of frequency of visits by people who usually find the content useful to them.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method used by many businesses and entrepreneurs online in order to maximize the potential of the search engine by helping them rise in the ranks of the query response listings. SEO usually deals with organic searches, or those that need no payment to be listed among the list of likely matches to a client’s keywords, as well as crawler search engines, which are search engines that literally crawl through web pages in search of relevant links and relations between pages in order to find relevant content.

Dubious figures in the Internet, however, have made use of the Internet to forward their own selfish desires, leading to an unethical use of the brilliant SEO model. This has led to a divergent field of SEO, called “black hat SEO”. In this method, various deceptive schemes are used in order to manipulate search engines and dupe customers by providing them with websites that are completely useless. This method is also called “spamdexing”.

Ethical SEO techniques also exist in the Internet. Before even going into details, the most important ideal behind ethical SEO techniques is in providing better service to clients, and allowing this satisfaction to become key in promoting the website.

What does it take for a method to become an ethical SEO technique?

There are various ways under the central guideline to achieve them.

The first one is creating quality content for the users. After all, no ethical SEO technique tries to get the better of any customer, or even harm them to the slightest extent. By providing quality content, users receive useful, timely, and secured information when they need it.

In order for that to be achieved, no amount of exaggeration or manipulation of the nature and content of the website is done to lead customers into believing that it contains the website relevant to their query. Ethical SEO does not employ any method that will mislead the customer into a site, and even offend the customer once he or she has found his or her way into the website.

Moreover, ethical SEO techniques do not, in any way, violate any laws as regards intellectual property rights, international law, or spamming laws implemented at every level of every way. This would include not claiming for their own products and services that are not theirs to sell or produce just so they can fool users into providing sensitive information through which they can extort money.

A website employing ethical SEO techniques will never try to exaggerate and reflect a company’s image any more than how it should be portrayed; doing so, in effect, manipulates the customer into trusting a company based on falsity.

Relevant to various security issues existent on the Internet, one last measure of how ethical a SEO technique is lies in the protection of its customers on the basis of privacy agreements. In providing the service sought by the client, ethical SEO techniques protect the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information made known to them in confidence by their clients.

Both goals aim to achieve the same end of profit. However, the road diverges and one must pick one over the other. In the end, ethical SEO techniques allow for users to maximize the profit they pay without impinging on the rights of other people an manipulating others; this by far is the best option to go.

www.outsourcingseosolutions is a company that provides ethical and modern search engine optimization solution. Outsourcing SEO solutions is very cheap and effective search engine optimization company.


14

Ethical Hacking- an Introduction


ankit Computer/security 2008-05-02
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ankit

The explosive growth and advancement of the Internet has brought many good things and services: Electronic commerce, easy access to vast stores of reference material and information, collaborative computing, e-mail, and new avenues for advertising and information distribution, online gaming, socializing sites to name a few. As with most technological advances, there is also a dark(Negative) side also: criminal hackers and Hacking. Governments, companies, and private citizens around the world are anxious to be a part of this revolution for the purpose of evolution and development, but they are afraid that some hacker will break(creep) into their Web server and replace their logo with pornography or some undesired stuff and all, read their e-mail, steal their credit card number from an on-line shopping and money transferring site, or implant software that will secretly transmit their organization's secrets to the open Internet (spyware etc). With these concerns and others, the ethical hacker can help with the same problem. This paper describes ethical hackers: their skills, their attitudes, and how they go about helping their customers find and plug up security holes and back doors and loose points. The ethical hacking process is explained, along with many of the problems(threats) that the Global Security Analysis Lab has seen during its early years of ethical hacking for IBM clients.

The term “HACKER” has a dual usage and meaning in the computer industry today. Originally, the term was defined as:

HACKER noun :-
1. A person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems and how to stretch their capabilities—as opposed to most users of computers, who prefer to learn only the minimum amount necessary.

2. One who programs enthusiastically or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing or mugging up the programming. These persons are the amateurs of programming who do it for self satisfaction and enjoyment rather than any professional means.

Read full and more articles on:-
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15

Ethical Issues in Contemporary Business


Andrew Business/Ethics 2007-06-25
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Business ethics is crucial to overall society well being and corporate organizations, if to view the issue from the business standpoint. Public confidence is ethical business operation is only yet to recover, as of February 2004, 75 percent of Americans found the image of big corporations either “not good” or even “terrible”. The crucial step when it comes to business ethics – is to admit existence of a problem that is essentially based in the difference in the corporate values of different stakeholder groups. While society wants to receive well paid jobs, the focus of many organizations remains on cost minimization and maximization of productivity levels. While society wants to purchase goods at the lowest prices possible, businesses are normally profit seeking entities. Finally, it is crucial for society to sustain environmentally clean surroundings, whereas for business – this goal is followed by additional costs. These conflicts are fundamental to the nature of business, it is crucial for managers to find the balance between different stakeholder groups including workers, customers, company owners, and the larger community.
Rapid technologic and scientific innovation followed by globalization makes the need to balance between stakeholders needs even more difficult. Ethical standards and practices often are not even able to keep with scientific innovation such as cloning. When it comes to business practices issues arise with U.S. job outsourcing to Third World community, valuation of intangible assets in the new technological era (Mayer, 2004). Despite the rising difficulties, it is crucial for managers to find the balance – otherwise a company might cease to exist unable to compete in the market place.
The role of business ethics in contemporary marketplace should be mainly discussed from the pragmatic approach. In order for business to exist, there must be a community of potential buyers and sellers, whereas this community and overall public morality are the two indivisible and integrated parts. Obviously, in order to preserve business, organizations must sustain a certain level of morality in order to successfully function and remain competitive. As business are interested in the first place in profitability of an enterprise, they are, therefore, interested in maintenance of a positive corporate image. Consequently, businesses are interested in ethical practices.
Consequently, marketplace is realizing undervaluation and investors are less likely to put own money to generate profits. The effect on economy overall is direct – while series of scandals created a boom in the stock market, now economy is developing at a lower rates, as the cost of funds to be used in business is raising. As such, the relationship between ethical malpractice and economic stagnation is direct – ethical scandals undermine public trust, whereas business, investors, and society overall are the ones to bare the costs of unethical practices of individuals. Consequently, the role of ethical behavior in contemporary marketplace from the value created for society can hardly be overestimated


16

Finding An Ethical SEO Consultant


Internet Business/SEO 2007-09-20
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Search engine optimization, popularly known as SEO, is a technique that optimizes a website in order to make it very search-engine-friendly. SEO can be performed at the programming as well as at the content end – the programming aspect of SEO tunes the website to the requirements of the latest search engines algorithms, while the content aspect of SEO involves strategically embedding sought-after keywords in the website content. There are other methods as well – e.g., link building, article submission and directory submission.

If you want your website to register its presence in the competitive world of Internet, you've got to resort to SEO techniques. Otherwise, a website fails to get noticed amongst millions of them. But the bad news is that there are many unethical outfits out there who promise you great SEO, but all they do to get your website a high page rank on the results page is employ a variety of unethical techniques (the so called black-hat techniques) to fool the search engines. If caught by search engines, your website can be blacklisted and banned for adopting unethical SEO techniques. It is, therefore, absolutely important that a website owner works along with an ethical SEO consultant, and here's how you must choose one.

Guide To Choosing An Ethical SEO Consultant

The Internet has made the world a smaller place and a website owner can work with SEO consultants based in any part of the world – there are many SEO consultants' websites all over the Internet, and tracking down one is not all that difficult a task. And here's how you must choose one:

1. If the SEO consultant is a professional, then he must be accredited by many reputed organizations such as Google AdWords, Web CEO University, and SEO Pros. If the SEO consultant has more accreditations, well, the more the merrier. A certified SEO professional is ethical by default – ethics are inbuilt into their work code.

2. He must have an impressive roster of clients who speak highly of him. And he must not be hesitant to give out a few references.

3. If the SEO consultant is professional and ethical then it automatically follows he will have a successful track record. So, go ahead and check the websites he has performed SEO on, and check if they rank high on search engines results pages.

4. The SEO consultant needs to be versatile and he must offer services such as website analysis, content writing, keyword research, link building, SEO and, of course, adequate reporting back to the client.

5. The SEO consultant must have a clean track record, in the sense that he must never have been blacklisted for adopting unethical SEO techniques. Such techniques include spamming search engines, trading links with websites that are part of link farms, or cloaking, which means coating keywords with the same color as the website's background and stuffing a whole lot of them on all the pages. You can find out if the SEO consultant has resorted to dubious means by running a check on him on search engines and on message boards. Plus, you can always check with his references too.

That was a small guide on how to go about selecting an ethical SEO consultant. True, finding an ethical SEO consultant will take a little bit of time and effort, but it is well worth it. Because an unethical SEO consultant can kill a website, while an ethical consultant can help you build your fortune.

17

The Ethical Internet Advertising Agency


Andy Eliason Business/Advertising 2007-11-16
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An Internet advertising agency has a number of options open to them, both ethical and non-ethical, when it comes to promoting your website. As search engines continue to evolve their algorithms, marketing companies work to keep up. There are numerous "rules" an Internet advertising agency can follow to build solid, lasting rankings, or – and this is the scary part – they can use those rules to attempt to manipulate the search results.

The more in-depth one knows the "rules" the more that person will discover ways to exploit. And there's been a lot of talk lately about a newly theoretical application of unethical search engine marketing, often referred to as "negative SEO". Now these unethical Internet advertising agencies have gone past simply manipulating their way to the top and right into maliciously pulling others down.

Not only is this behavior unethical, it could be dangerous. There are legal ramifications to employing methods designed solely with the intent of damaging a competitor's website.

And yet, that doesn't seem to dissuade certain unethical Internet advertising agencies from attempting them.

Some of the practices might include: Google Bowling, spamming in your competition's name, fake copyright complaints or fake duplicate content, and even click fraud. These things are designed to hurt a website in different ways, and an ethical Internet advertising agency will never employ them. They understand that you are more likely to enjoy success when you employ ethical Internet marketing techniques and advertising best practices. The right company understands that unethical practices are likely to do more harm than good.

Google Bowling is currently the topic of discussion since it has received some mainstream press. Basically the practice involves black-hat SEO – not for your own website, but for your competitor's. As search engines evolved, they began doing more than just ignoring or devaluing certain SEO practices. They started penalizing websites for questionable behavior. So the agencies of questionable ethics reasoned that if those penalties could harm them, then they could harm their competition by doing it for them.

In this case, the practice is link spamming. If a site gets too many links too fast then Google pronounced that an unnatural growth and buries the site in the results or even outright bans them. So the theory goes: what if there's a site out there that you don't think you can beat by normal methods? Why not convince the search engines to knock them down a peg or two so you can?

It's an interesting theory, but so far it seems to be just that. A theory. Not only is it unproven, but Google flat out says that it's almost impossible for competitors to harm your ranking or have you removed from their index.

But when you think about it, it ought to work.

Luckily "ought tos" aren't going to take the unethical marketing agencies very far. Imagine dropping 500,000 links to your competitor in a weekend in hopes of framing them for link spamming (trying to Google Bowl them). In theory, anyone who gets that kind of linking in such a short period should suffer the penalty and possibly get banned. Whether they do it themselves or you do it for them, shouldn't the search engines see it as the same thing?

But what if you do it wrong? What if your work isn't noticed immediately? Then all you've done is hand your competition hundreds of thousands of links, pushing them even further out of range and more untouchable.

The ethical Internet advertising agency can help you reach the top of the search engine results and stay there. They can also help protect you from the agencies who might try using these practices against you.


18

Ethical And Green Weddings


Davinos Greeno Society/Womens Interest 2007-01-15
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Many of the rich and famous including Charles and Camilla served organic food at their wedding, but elsewhere it is very much on the wedding menu as brides and grooms go ethical on the most important day of their life. Make your wedding a special day - for you and the planet. To help, we have put together a list of suggestions and pointers towards your ethical big day, from the ceremony and catering, to an eco-friendly honeymoon.

Ethical Weddings can include using:

A venue operated on environmentally friendly principles or supporting a charity or community project
A caterer using organic and local produce
A dressmaker or designer using organic, hemp or recycled fabrics
A florist working with organic or fairtrade flowers
An environmentally friendly means of transport such as horse and cart
Stationery designed on recycled or hand crafted paper
Wedding rings that use recycled gold or fairtrade silver or by buying diamonds that are conflict free
Not accepting traditional household wedding gifts such as toasters but accepting donations to charity on your behalf
Using biodegradable confetti

Im now going to expand on a few of the points above:

Wedding Lists

The first casualty is the traditional wedding list, a monument to conspicuous consumption featuring dinner services and crystal to be replaced at fashionable weddings by charity lists, with tree plantations and donated cows for communities in the developing world. If you are green fingered, how about plants, trees or garden vouchers.

Wedding Staionery

Use recycled paper for wedding stationery, or try Recycled Paper. To save paper, you could design a website, and send a postcard to guests referring them to it. Wedding photos can be easier to share if you go digital too.

The Dress

Another option is to hire the gown and other wedding outfits instead of buying it and then putting in the warbrobe just to pull it out for the occasional look!

Drink

Buy organic or fairtrade wine for your guests and enjoy the revelry while nature and communities benefit. Order wine, spirits, champagne, beer and soft drinks from an independent online organic retailer while avoiding the supermarkets that make millions in profits.

Food

Support local, seasonal and organic food production - and ask your caterer to do the same. Avoid disposable plates and make sure empties end up in the recycling bin.

Ask your cake-maker or local baker to use local and organic ingredients where possible.

Transport

Find a venue as close to home as possible to cut down on transport. Horse drawn carriages are not only good at seaside resorts but also on your wedding day. If you dont have the ceremony and reception at the same venue, encourage guests to share rides to the reception or provide a coach or bus.

Honeymoon

Think about romantic destinations you can visit that are as close to home as possible to reduce the number of road and air miles. If you decide to go longhaul, then find an eco friendly or ethical hotel to stay in.


19

Ethical Search Engine Optimisation UK


Search Logic Plc Computer/Computer 2007-08-24
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Search Engine Optimisation is carried out to gain higher rankings for a website. To do this, the site’s existing pages are modified so that they match search engine’s ranking algorithm. SEO is a time intensive and a long term procedure and takes time in delivering concrete results.

Ethical search engine optimisation is following SEO practices that are acceptable to the search engines. Unethical practices include creating link farms, building doorway or cloaking pages, purchasing links, using multiple domains with similar content, and using automated software to trick the search engines. These unethical practices produce contrary results and harm the website in the long run.

When SEO is carried out while working with the search engines and by abiding by the search engine rules, these practices are termed as ethical SEO practices. Semantic SEO is also one of the ethical SEO techniques that are recognized by the search engines.

Semantic based Search Engine Optimisation or Latent Semantic Indexing is a technique where first the content is carefully analyzed to sort out a list of keywords that are used for SEO purposes instead of focusing on a single keyword. This is done to ensure the relevancy of the content when it is displayed in the browser. As all the major search engines recognize semantic SEO, it helps to rank the website naturally in the search engines. It is a safer technique to use and much preferred than the Spam techniques, which can get your website penalised.

If you are serious about online marketing of your site, products and services in World Wide Web then Search engine optimisation is a must. Search Logic is a SEO company in UK, offering search engine optimisation in UK. The SEO services include activities such as Keyword research, Competition Analysis, Optimisation of the website content, Meta Tags and other html tags creation, Sub domain creation, creating additional website content relevant to the chosen keywords, and link building.
Search Logic has a team of online marketing experts who are equipped with the necessary knowledge & skills to offer relevant online solutions for your website. Besides semantic SEO we also offer you Pay per click bid management services, link building services, pay per click software and affiliate marketing services. You can choose from a wide array of solutions and packages specially designed considering the varied client needs. Pick according to your requirements and preferences and see the positive effects of the techniques.
Visit the site www.searchlogic.com to get more information about the SEO UK services offered at the site.


20

ETHICAL ISSUES IN DRUG ADVERTISING


Yusuf Danesi Business/Advertising 2007-03-17
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As consumers, we are exposed to several commercial messages daily. They may come in the form of radio ads, newspaper ads, TV commercials, publicity, event sponsorships, SMS marketing, billboard ads, etc. These are some of the communication tools that companies and organizations deploy to win and retain customers, clients and prospects.

According to the Nigeria Code of Advertising Practice, “advertising is a form of communication through the media about products, services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor.” Over the years the sophistication of marketing has increased tremendously as messages that encourage us to buy are crafted by creative, talented people.

Advertisements provide information which we consumers find quite helpful. Advertisements increase our knowledge of the product choices, available to us. Advertisements have come to play a vital role for the business community in an economy based on free enterprise; in a nutshell advertisements are a valid part of modern life.

As a social force, advertising has been a major factor in improving the standard of living around the world- it is estimated that worldwide expenditure on advertising has been “growing faster than the world gross product.”

Aside from stimulating sales, advertising also serves other social needs, e.g. media receive their primary revenue from advertising. This therefore fosters freedom of the press and encourages more complete information.


Ethics comprise two interrelated components, i.e. the traditional actions taken by people in a society or community and the philosophical rules that society formulates to justify such actions and decree future actions.

Ethics in marketing communications involves issues of right and wrong or moral conduct as they relate to any aspect of the profession. The International Chamber of Commerce, a world non-governmental organization based in Paris, serves world business. The Chamber has been the world’s advocate of ethical practice, through codes, which it promulgates to cover almost every aspect of marketing communications.

It is remarkable that every country in the world tries to tailor its code along the Chamber’s model; this ensures that consumers’ interests and observance of the principles of fair competition are observed.

Some of the headings within the rules of the Chamber are: decency, honesty, intimation of advertising, identification of advertisements, special categories of product and service, unacceptable practice connected with advertising, etc. The Chamber’s Code requires all advertising to be prepared with a high sense of responsibility.

Since its advent, advertising has had to struggle with issues of honesty and ethics. In the early 1900s, consumers in the US suffered for years from unsubstantiated product claims, especially for patent medicines and health devices. However, since the late 1950s, legislation to protect the consumer/the consumer movement has gained influence and power in many countries of the western world.

A recent study on the role of ethics in advertising by David Krueger, a Managerial and Corporate Ethics Professor at Baldwin Wallace College, US, reveals that questions of honesty and truth create fundamental moral challenges for the practice of advertising. He is of the opinion that these moral challenges seem to be deeply rooted in the very nature of the profession and its role in a consumer society.

These challenges can better be understood within the context of advertising’s engagement of puffery, which more or else exaggerates, fabricates and fantasizes in its bid to persuade the consumer to buy a product or patronize a service. What therefore arises is the question of moral boundaries that society wishes to place around advertising.

A drug is a substance that modifies behaviour, physiology and is simply therapeutic. It is manufactured, sold and presented for use in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease, disorder, abnormal physical state and of the symptoms thereof, or in restoring, correcting or modifying any function in man or animal.

Medicines are of two general kinds:
1. Prescription drugs, or Rx drugs
2. Over-the-counter drugs (OTC)

OTC drugs are generally referred to as medications that can be purchased at pharmacies without a doctor’s written prescription. Some OTC drugs are highly advertised while there is evidence that advertising plays a crucial role in the lives of many OTC preparations. One can buy OTC drugs anytime as most OTC drugs treat only the symptoms of a disease, the signs that something wrong. Examples of OTC drugs are cough medicines, and cold tablets.

Prescription drugs often treat the causes of a disease, while about 70% of all medicines manufactured in the US may be prescription drugs. It is also believed that American doctors prescribe more than 1.5 billion ethical drugs each year. Ethical drugs are high potency drugs which can only be prescribed by qualified medical doctors or pharmacists. Examples of such drugs are antibiotics, Viagra and tranquilizers.

As at 2000, the Nigerian Pharmaceutical Market (NPM) was valued at over N20 billion minus the parallel imports.

Unlike OTC drugs, ethical drugs can by law be advertised only to doctors.
It is generally believed that in consumer marketing, advertising plays the most important function, followed by sales promotion, personal selling and public relations.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising of ethical drugs is currently permitted in only the United States and New Zealand. It is currently banned in all other countries, including the United Kingdom and Nigeria.

While Nigerian orthodox medicine practitioners refrain from engaging mass-media advertising for ethical drugs, it is the opposite with trado-medical practitioners, who have the answers to diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, cancer, epilepsy, kidney disorder, etc. According to Akunyili, the “inordinate quest for material wealth is partly responsible for the little premium, which such herbal practitioners and their collaborators in media and advertising firms place on human life.”

Drug advertising, if not properly regulated, could only lead to chaos and anarchy as unsuspecting consumers are easily misled. Competition also arises whereby consumers find themselves at the receiving end as they are easily exploited. Consequently, the economy suffers because real manufacturers, importers and distributors of medicines are driven out of the market by businessmen who invest virtually nothing in R&D.

It is also not surprising that this state of anarchy can only promote the dumping of fake and substandard drugs in the country. One can then visualize the burden this trend places on our already fragile healthcare delivery system.

Recently, the United States FDA advisers recommended that consumer advertising of Cox-2 painkillers (class of anti-inflammatory drugs) be limited or banned, blaming aggressive marketing for their misuse in 2005. The Agency said the overall risk versus benefit profile of Pfizer’s Bextra was unfavourable. Bextra is Pfizer’s 8th biggest selling drug at $1.2 billion. The company also withdrew Celebrex consumer advertising amid concerns that it posed increased cardiovascular risks.

Levitra is marketed by Bayer, Schering-Plough & GlaxoSmithKline. The FDA ordered the discontinuation of the Levitra ads because they failed to disclose the drug’s indication, failed to include information relating to the major side effects and contraindications and failed to make adequate provision for dissemination of the FDA-approved labeling.

In 2004, Merck and Pfizer spent about $187 million promoting Vioxx and Celebrex, respectively, to consumers. Merck actually obeyed the FDA by withdrawing Vioxx from the market in 2005 because of heart attack and stroke concerns.

America’s pharmaceutical industry spent $4.1 billion on consumer drug advertising in 2004, beyond 28% from 2003 and far outpacing the 6.3% rise for ad spending across all industries in 2004. This shows that the pharmaceutical sector is highly profitable.

When everything from cars to toothpaste is marketed to the public, why should drugs be restricted? The underlying principle of free market economics is that a society is best served by empowering people to make their own decisions and act as free agents, within a system by the following fundamental assumptions:
1. Self interest
2. Many Buyers and many Sellers
3. Complete information
4. Absence of externalities

Should consumer health or commercial interests be given priority? Can drug advertising - whose aim is to sell a product –provide the type of information consumers need? How should advertising be regulated if the guiding principle is the best possible use of medicines, only if and when they are needed, in the interest of individual and public health?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) two-thirds of the world’s countries either do not have laws to regulate pharmaceutical advertising or do not enforce the regulations they have. Even in advanced countries, studies show that most doctors who prescribe inappropriately do so because they over-rely on advertising messages. The outcome? Poorer health conditions!


The WHO ethical criteria state that promotion of ethical and OTC drugs should:
1. Be consistent with national health policies
2. Contain reliable claims, without misleading or unverifiable statements
3. Contain no omissions which could lead to health risks
4. Not be designed so as to disguise its real nature, for example as educational or scientific activities.

The Ethical Criteria also take care of general guidelines for ads to the medical profession and the public, conduct of sales representatives, free samples, symposia and scientific meetings, post-marketing studies, packaging and labeling, patient information and promotion of exported drugs.

Note that though WHO Ethical Criteria do not constitute legal obligations to member-states, they are recommendations to member-states for their implementation through their national legislation and regulation. Meanwhile they promote self-regulatory methods.

Unfortunately, these clear and straightforward criteria have been much neglected by regulators, health professionals, industry staff and the public.


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