Using Disaster to Sell

Recently, there have been incidents involving brands using disastrous events to advertise their products on social media. Is it ethical to use something that caused others so much trauma in order to make money?

On September 5th, fashion designer Kenneth Cole published the tweet: “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear”. This tweet refers to the Pentagon spokesperson saying that there will be no “boots on the ground” in Syria. Syria has been a war zone since 2011. According to the CBC, more than 100,000 people been killed during the civil war. I think that Kenneth Cole’s push to sell his shoe collection by alluding to war torn Syria is completely insensitive. It doesn’t seem like he realizes what a serious problem is going on in Syria.

However, this sort of advertising does have some value from a business standpoint. It has shock value. There is a saying: “no publicity is bad publicity.” This could be what Kenneth Cole was trying for when posting this tweet, because he posted a similar tweet during the riots in Cairo, Egypt. He must have seen some some results from this type of advertising.

Source:

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/09/kenneth-cole-syria-tweet-draws-fire-online.html

11. September 2013 by cherrychang
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