ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on behaviours that are illegal, taboo or culturally sensitive – work in the Institute for Social Marketing has covered illicit drug use, sex, addiction, speeding, domestic violence, prisoner health and childhood immunisation. The ethical systems are being developed and increasingly it is difficult to get very far with a social marketing idea, not just ethical issues, but also requirements to address the issues. Social marketers must make informed judgements about what problems to address or what behaviour to influence. The most fundamental reason that social marketers should be concerned with ethics is because ultimately their business is messing with people's lives. Ethical questions are also likely to occur when making decisions about the social marketing offering. Conducting research into the sensitive, taboo and, at times illegal, behaviours of social marketing business requires careful consideration. As with human behaviour there are many theories in the study of ethics. Deontological and teleological theories offer competing resolutions.
