Ethics is important in any area, but perhaps even more so in social marketing given the sensitivity of some issues in particular that social marketers are asked to address.

Commercial marketers have long been criticised for using allegedly unethical methods to target vulnerable populations, or simply using deceptive tactics against consumers in general. Marketing as an activity has been accused of being unethical in a number of ways (Murphy and Bloom 1990): creating greed and dissatisfaction; misleading because it doesn’t give the full picture of a product; manipulative because it persuades people to buy things they don’t need; and a waste of valuable resources that could be spent in better causes (e.g., it is said that the global Coca-Cola marketing budget could make a real difference to worldwide child poverty). Marketing is accused of focusing on selected target markets, often those that are wealthy or privileged, and neglecting others. Conversely, other marketers, such as the tobacco companies and alcohol marketers, are accused of targeting vulnerable audiences such as children, teenagers and ­socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Marketing is accused of being intrusive, in that television advertisements enter our homes, disrupting our leisure time, while billboards distract our attention on the road.