The main ethical constraints of developing a brand would mainly revolve around aspects such as the environment, work conditions, honesty and factual correctness.
When companies brand themselves with being 'green' and environmentally friendly they have to make sure they do not destroy land that is preserved or contains endangered life. The tactic some companies use is called 'Green Washing' it is called this because you may get brands that pride themselves as being good for the environment and for doing good deeds such as planting a tree for every tree cut down in the rainforest. These tactics may be shady though as we do not get the other side of story from their advertisements and the company could be more bad then good for the environment. While the Green Washing tactic is used a lot the governments of the world have commissioned programs and institutions such as the 'Federal Trade Commission'(USA), 'Norway's consumer ombudsman', 'Canada's Competition Bureau' and 'The Australian Trade Practices Act'. All these these institutions help ground the advertisements by implementing fines ands other penalties.
Brands such as H&M, Gap and Hershey's have to sometimes outsource jobs to third world companies; these are normally jobs in a garment factory, coco plantation among other facilities. These facilities are known for occasionally getting into trouble with the law over their human rights abuses such as overwork, unfair wage pay and not up to date living conditions. The public doesn't generally think about these aspects of certain products due to being more pre-occupied with shopping or just simply not knowing about what happens behind the scenes of producing and or manufacturing of certain products.
The Advertising Standards Authority
The Advertising Standards Authority was founded in 1961 and it is a British self regulatory organisation which mainly focuses it's gaze onto the advertising medium. When the ASA finds an advertisement, sales pitch or direct marketing attempt their main goal would be to find out if the ad directly complies with it's own set of guidelines. Much like the organisations previously mentioned the ASA holds each ad to the effect of finding out if the marketers hold accurate claims as to whether or not the advertisements can prove all claims which could be directly or subtly implied to the audience. Notable cases include a suit against Apple Computer's claim to have the "the worlds fastest personal computer" the computer was judged and found to be unstable and Apple retracted the claim.
Food wise the ASA is very strict as to how some food products may advertise and showcase their products. For example some critics of certain fast food brands have called for the banning of material that could effect a child's health in a negative way. From 2007 and onwards the ASA have been stricter on soft drink and fast food companies; these rules normally apply to under sixteen
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