The Media and Their Advertisers: Exploring Ethical Dilemmas in Product Coverage Decisions Diego Rinallo • Suman Basuroy • Ruhai Wu • Hyo Jin Jeon Received: 11 August 2011 / Accepted: 7 May 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Marketers are increasingly relying on promo- tional practices (variously labeled as stealth marketing, hybrid messages, covert advertising) based on the diffusion of product information by third parties that appear to be independent of advertisers. In this paper, we examine to what extent the media treat their advertisers favorably, providing these advertisers’ products extra visibility in supposedly neutral editorial content. Empirically, we model the determinant of media coverage of Italian fashion products in an extended dataset of consumer magazines in Italy, France, Germany, UK, and the USA. Research findings show that advertising is an important determi- nant of product placements in editorial content, and this result is consistent across countries and publishers. Our results imply that resource-rich advertisers engaging in compensatory advertising (that is, advertising investments that compensate poor product quality) might bias media coverage in their favor. Consumers will consequently be exposed twice to favorable messages about those products, in both advertisements and media content, resulting in higher purchases and reduced consumer welfare. Keywords Advertising ethics  Freedom of the press  Hybrid messages  Product publicity  Stealth marketing  Reciprocity  Editorial integrity There is no duty more indispensable than that of returning a kindness. Cicero Introduction Scholars in business ethics, communication, and marketing have long been concerned with the unintended conse- quences of advertising on society and consumers (Pollay 1986). Frequently debated topics include advertising’s contribution to the diffusion of materialistic consumer lifestyles (Belk 1985; Belk and Pollay 1985; Richins 1991), deceptive advertising (Attas 1999; Darke and Ritchie 2007; Gardner 1975; Treise et al. 1994), advertising to vulnerable consumers such as children (Bakir and Vitell 2010; Hudson et al. 2008; Moore 2004; Sharp Paine 1993), and the representation of women, seniors and sexual minorities in advertising (Carrigan and Szmigin 2000; Cohan 2001; Englis et al. 1994; Goffman 1976; Henthorne and LaTour 1995; Kates 1999; Lin 2008; Schroeder and Borgerson 1998, 2005). D. Rinallo Marketing Department, CERMES—Center for Research on Marketing and Services, Bocconi University, Via Roentgen 1, 20136 Milan, Italy e-mail: diego.rinallo@unibocconi.it S. Basuroy (&) Division of Marketing & Supply Chain, University of Oklahoma, 307 West Brooks, Adams Hall Room 3, Norman, OK 73019, USA e-mail: sumanbasuroy-1@ou.edu R. Wu DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street, West, Hamilton ON L8S-4M4, Canada e-mail: wuruhai@mcmaster.ca H. J. Jeon Department of Managerial Sciences, College of Business, University of Nevada Reno, 1664 N, Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557, USA e-mail: hjeon@unr.edu 123 J Bus Ethics DOI 10.1007/s10551-012-1353-z