” McDonald’s which is a major franchise restaurant worldwide has lured millions of children into eating at their restaurant, by supplying a free venue for birthday parties and an outdoor area with a children’s playground. This can create an image of “if you want a happy time, go to McDonalds”. They also have their name on some of the educational products such as stationery and programs on computers used in primary schools. This encourages young children to want to eat McDonald’s which is a very unhealthy fast food, and as it is a part of the schooling environment, children think that this has the approval of the education department. This could lead to poor food choices in later life.
Today many soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi try to cover up the fact that their soft drink is extremely unhealthy, by creating new no sugar soft drinks to promote the fact that there is no sugar in their drinks. So instead of putting sugar into their drinks they use artificial sweeteners to make it have that same taste as the original drink. This makes the advertisement of these new “no sugar soft drinks” misleading and therefore unethical. It really confuses the issue that artificial sweeteners are also related to health problems. ”
The above 2 companies obviously violates the ethics in a way that they choose to ignore the health of their consumers. However, on the other side of their marketing campaign is all about sports, charity, or anything that gives general companies a positive image. Why would they even do that? Are they begging for forgiveness? I do not think so. If they want forgiveness, why would these companies continue to market their products years and years? 2012 is not the first year that their products are complained to be unhealthy. What happen if they do stop advertising, stop all the marketing campaigns? I guess people would still go for Mcdonalds when they are hungry, or drink Coke when they are thirsty or craving some sweetness. These events would definitely happen, so why are people concerned with the ethics of Mcdonald’s and Coke’s marketing strategies? People are still going to have consume them even without their advertisements! In other words, consumers are the ones who choose what they want even the marketing strategies are unethical. Thus, I am confused about the importants of ethics in marketing. It seems not as important as the ethics in other industry. I guess I am wrong, hopefully, I have a clear mind about it after the lesson about ethics
Source:
“Ethical & Unethical Marketing”
Image Source:
2 replies on “Unethical Marketing…..does it matter?”
Hey Justin,
Your blog is very well written. I agree with you on your first example about McDonald’s targeting children in many of their advertising campaigns. Since children are vulnerable in the sense that most of them are not intellectually capable of making the best decisions for themselves, McDonald’s takes advantage of that. I think what they could do is introduce some healthier meal options and create advertising campaigns that educate children on the importance of healthy eating.
-Patty
I’m curious: did the ethics lesson clear things up for you?
Nice image to add interest, and glad to see you’ve cited the source!