In class we discussed the issue of ethics and how ethics is a really “grey” area. It depends on people’s views and whether or not the company as well as the consumers believe that there was an intention to harm. Looking through my classmates blogs I came across Wansum Li’s blog about the Nike fifa world cup ads, which we also talked about in class.
http://forum.xcitefun.net/write-the-future-nike-world-cup-ad-t48897.html
Whether or not it is ethical or not depends greatly on the individual interpreting it, and in this case I agree with Wansum that Nike’s Campaign was not entirely unethical. Although Adidas was the official sponser and Nike was not, does that mean Nike was not allowed to associate the World Cup in their ads? Yes Nike intervened Adidas and decided to start this campaign without being an official sponsor and as a result received more attention, but the content of the ads in my opinion was completely ethical.
All the sports stars: Kobe, Rooney, Rinaldo endorse Nike products and have association to Nike, so Nike shouldn’t be faulted for using these huge stars to launch the ads to gain more attention.
Secondly, Nike’s campaign was based on its own platform and slogan: write the future. It is original and they are able to really capture the idea behind FIFA.
Although I believe that Nike shouldn’t have necessarily went forward with such a huge campaign for the World Cup since it wasn’t the official sponser, they were able to use their own resources such as: viral videos, unique advertisements, catchy slogan and sports stars to reach out to consumers and increase profit.
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