ADVERTISING MUST CONTRIBUTE TO THE WELL-BEING OF INDIVIDUALS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 11, 2002 (VIS) - Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, spoke yesterday afternoon at the Monaco World Summit in Montecarlo on "Corporate Responsibility, Dignity and Human Rights."

The archbishop recalled that his dicastery has published various documents in the last few years on ethics in advertising, communications and in internet. These documents have stressed the "three principles for ethics in all types of communication: truth, the dignity of the human person and the common good."

"The dignity of the human person can be enhanced or harmed by advertising and indeed by all means of communication. How often have we seen advertisements which treat individuals - especially women - as objects, very often sex objects? How often have we perceived that advertising seeks not a positive contribution to an individual's well-being but a greater contribution to the bottom line? Individuals come to be viewed as numbers to be delivered, not as human beings to be served."

"The human person and the human community are the end and the measure of the use of the communications media; communication should be by persons to persons for the integral development of persons. Integral development ... requires attention to the 'inner dimension', a dimension which is at least moral if not religious and spiritual. ... Individuals have irreducible dignity and importance, and they may never be sacrificed to collective interests."

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