Editorial: Shops must know moral boundaries.(advertising )(Editorial)

Issues rarely come more sensitive or polarise opinion more sharply than abortion. So it is inevitable that any agency debating whether or not to pitch to a group of well-heeled anti-abortion campaigners wanting to raise the level of debate on the subject through a TV campaign will have had to ask searching questions of itself.

Should the contentiousness of the subject matter be allowed to get in the way of an opportunity to produce award-winning and profile-enhancing creative work? Would it harm the agency's standing with existing clients and new-business prospects? In short, would it be more trouble than it is worth?

Three agencies certainly believe the abortion brief to be so. One has rejected it on ethical grounds, while two others have decided not to take it on for fear of how their existing clients might react. Behind all these concerns, however, lurks a more fundamental dilemma. Exactly where is the moral line to be drawn when an agency has to decide what it will or won't pitch for?

The answer will never be conclusive. Nevertheless, there are some basic ground-rules that should help ease what will always be a difficult decision-making process.

For a start, it's as well to remember that ...