STEVEN HEILBRONNER

Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican called on advertisers Tuesday (Feb. 25) to curb the use of explicit sexual material and deception in print and broadcast campaigns, and said governments should increase regulation of advertising.

The recommendations, culled from several years of study and approved by Pope John Paul II, were made by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and contained in a 30-page report,”Ethics in Advertising.””We do not wish, and certainly we do not expect, to see advertising eliminated from the contemporary world,”the report said. In fact, the council said there were numerous examples of useful advertising that help consumers make better purchasing decisions.

But citing advertising’s”profound impact”on behavior, the panel said agencies should”eliminate … socially harmful aspects and observe high ethical standards in regard to truthfulness, human dignity and social responsibility.” Chief among the council’s objections are”appeals to lust, vanity, envy and greed, and of the techniques that manipulate and exploit human weakness.” Archbishop John Foley, an American and president of the panel, said the church was particularly offended by depictions of nudity on television and advertising of artificial contraceptives and products”harmful to health.”He also said advertising should not be used to appeal to a person’s sense of status but to rational consumer decisions, such as product price and quality.”People take for granted some rhetorical and symbolic exaggeration in advertising,”the document said.”Within the limits of recognized and accepted practice, this can be allowable. But it is a fundamental principle that advertising may not deliberately seek to deceive, whether it does that by what it says, by what it implies, or by what it fails to say.” The document was aimed at the industrial world, particularly the United States and Europe, where TV ads frequently show scantily clad women selling everything from cars to wristwatches.

Pope John Paul and other Vatican officials have regularly warned against what they say are the dangers of exploitation and rampant consumerism in advertising and in TV programming. The document, though, marks the first time a Vatican panel has recommended specific steps to rein in what it sees as tawdry depictions or greedy appeals to wealth.

Ironically, the Catholic Church is not always in the forefront of condemning such tactics.

In France, an ad campaign for the film”The People vs. Larry Flynt,”which featured actor Woody Harrelson wearing a U.S. flag as a loincloth and his arms outstretched in front of a woman’s thighs, was withdrawn at the request of the film’s director, Milos Forman, after numerous groups complained. But the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference remained silent on the controversy.

Foley said he was unaware of the dispute, but said,”if they’re pulling the ad because people find it offensive, I think that’s a good thing.” He said the bishops’ conference was not required to pass judgment on every offensive ad.”I think that we should be clear on the moral principles, indicate occasionally when action should be taken, but not fall into the trap of becoming propagandists or giving publicity to something we object to.” The document did say the church should better educate pastors about the implications and uses of advertising.

It recommended that advertising agencies adopt ethical codes formulated by industry officials, church authorities and ethicists. It also proposed governments increase regulation of advertising to combat false claims and reduce risque material during prime-time viewing hours.

It also called on the news media to improve its watchdog role in ferreting out the distortions of advertising, though the panel said consumers cannot fully rely on newspapers and broadcasters to assess the fairness or taste of ads because advertisers account for most media revenues.

In a clear reference to political advertising in the United States, the council appeared to call for campaign finance reform, which the U.S. Congress is debating.

It said the high costs of advertising”limit competition to wealthy candidates or groups, or require that office-seekers compromise their integrity and independence by over-dependence on special interests for funds.” Such methods, it added, amount to an”obstruction of the democratic process … instead of being a vehicle for honest exposition of candidates’ views and records.” When all else fails, the council said, people should be free to seek civil claims against advertising companies.”This question of `reparations’ is a matter of legitimate involvement not only by industry self-regulatory bodies and public interest groups, but also by public authorities,”it said.

MJP END HEILBRONNER