The issue of ethics is one that often comes up with regards to negative marketing. While it may be legal to use it many feel it borders right on the line of being ethical. They feel there are better ways to promote your products to get an emotional response from buyers. The fact that the company is resorting to mud slinging may not say a great deal about their integrity or professionalism.

Yet most of that gets swept under the carpet due to the way in which consumers respond so well to it. That is what marketing and advertising is all about – getting a powerful message out there to the target market so they will be enticed to make a purchase.

Since you can basically use anything you want in your marketing materials, nothing in your market is safe. It can leave many with a bad taste in their mouth. It also leads to the question of using negative marketing. Some companies really don't want to but they feel like they are backed into a corner. They feel it is better to be the one to initiate it and get the benefits than to wait for a competitor to do it to them.

While negative marketing may be a benefit for the companies who use it, the industry as a whole seems to be affected by it. When competitors are pushed out they often have to let go of workers and the economy will suffer. You will also find the leader in that industry can charge more money for what they sale. This is due to them not having as much competition as they once did.

Those businesses who do engage in negative marketing need to be careful though. There have been some very serious allegations about defamation based on the information in those advertisements not being true. That is a practice that can backfire for such a business. Not only do they lose credibility with consumers but it often costs them a great deal of money to rectify the situation.