Rabbi's Musings

What Does Judaism Say About Advertising?

This time of year – indeed every time of year – we are inundated by advertising. The world of advertising is modern but some of the values involved in putting it into perspective are ancient and still timeless. References in the ancient literature are few but instructive. The prophet Isaiah (55:1-2) warns against spending our money on that which does not sustain us. In the Talmud, we find several stories of peddlers, but the greatest salespeople are those who “market” Torah. In the Middle Ages, the ethicist Moses Hayyim Luzzatto warned against using false advertising to convince people to buy things that they don’t really need. In general, the ancient Sages cautioned against misleading the customer.

I derive from these old lessons that there is a certain pragmatism at play. People can market their wares and convince people to procure their merchandise. But the sales should be ethical and the marketing honest. At heart, the value of integrity should guide the person who sells.

In the Ten Commandments, we are told not to lie. Advertising may not consist of outright lies but often the truth is stretched. (When I was growing up, commercials would often say “four out of five doctors recommend” and I would ponder if they only asked four or five doctors!) A much more serious issue is when a false claim is made about a product with serious defects. For example, the whole sordid affair with Theranos, in which a company claimed they could examine your blood with a small pinprick.  As the futility of the company’s ability grew more apparent so did the marketing grow more harmful. (We preachers are not immune to this tendency: it is common to buttress a shaky argument with shouting. But no one ever got sick from a lousy sermon.)

The bottom line for a Jewish view of advertising is that words matter, and we should be careful that our selling doesn’t diminish our integrity. Once we lose our integrity, we can never buy it back.