A thing I learned growing up was that people can often be unsympathetic – especially the rich and privileged towards those less fortunate. The most infuriating thing I’ve heard was when someone said that “Poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough” – because I didn’t and I still don’t believe that that’s true.

Over the week, a woman died in her car. She was napping during a break between her three minimum wage jobs, when a gas can she kept in the car fell over and filled the car with fumes. She was found motionless, with foam running out of her mouth, still wearing her Dunkin’ Donuts uniform at the time of her death.

I’ve learned quite a few things from Economics 101 – one of which is the idea that government interference with employee wages (such as increasing minimum wage) can cause issues such as increased unemployment. However, when I think about how this lady worked her body to complete exhaustion, never once complaining and was essentially “the model employee”, I wish there was something more that can be done for people like her. People who have dreams and hopes, but who can’t afford a college education to get the credentials for a better job. When I think about how she died in her uniform, it makes me rethink about the privileges I’ve been blessed with so far in my life.

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Source:

http://www.businessinsider.com/its-hard-to-live-on-minimum-wage-2014-10

I’m the type of person to install Ad-Block on all my browsers, set Facebook privacy settings to be as secure as I can get them, disable the Location app on my phone, block public access to twitter, use pseudonyms for any other social platforms, and tape up the webcam on my Macbook Air. Whenever I can, I try to minimize potential information websites can get from me – but being in an era where a social life is half dependent on your online presence, privacy controls has been difficult for me.

Needless to say, I do not like knowing that social media algorithms know how to target me as a university student living in Vancouver, B.C. But after being on the other side and paying facebook to run targeted ads for a conference I was a part of – I am intrigued with online advertising.

A man decided to target his roommate with a list of ads on Facebook. By using Facebook’s Custom Audiences, his roommate was successfully spooked out to the point of refusing to use his cellphone, fearing that it was bugged. The man behind the pranks said that he learned a lot about how to target consumers without seeming too personal.

Although it was just a joke, I have a feeling that if I ever decided to disable my Ad-Block add-on, I would be too disturbed to go online again. It seems like that this may in fact be the future of online marketing – up and way too personal advertisements.

Further Reading:

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/roommate-makes-his-friend-paranoid-creepy-facebook-ads-160320

ttp://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-in-advertising-september-24-2014-9

Roughly every year a new model of the iPhone will be released, and the mall will be packed with lines of people just dying to get their hands on the shiny, new device. In fact, many of these people will buy more than one. When I was in high school, I had a classmate who would be one of those people: he would skip class to stand at the front of the line. Just like those behind him, he had camped out in front of the store overnight – except he was not purchasing the new model for himself, but rather reselling it for a higher price overseas.

When I read Lily’s blog post, I remembered a conversation I had with this friend. I asked him how much he made from reselling the phones, and why he did it. Why would anyone want to buy the new model from him at such a high price? “We live in a world revolved around money and unfullfilled desires” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much I price it – there is always going to be people who want it before everyone can get it.”

I, myself, also had the newest model of the iPhone (until recently, but that’s a different story), and bought all the latest gadgets. I think consumers like myself have been conditioned at a young age the simple equation that more + new = better – but that does not give any of us an excuse to be ignorant as adults and continue this reckless behavior. There are lots of resources for us to go to in order to be more informed consumers, and not be ‘preyed’ upon. We just have to take the first step and become educated.

Further readings:

http://www.inc.com/vanessa-merit-nornberg/why-2014-is-the-year-of-the-informed-consumer.html

Consumers of today are much more socially conscious than they have ever been before. Most consumers are looking for a voice they can trust. Companies that people want to actively support and advocate for must demonstrate that they too have similar and passionate ideologies in order to stand out and strive.

LUSH cosmetics is a perfect example of a company that stands out by heavily stressing the importance of corporate social responsibility. By taking a strong stance within the communities it has businesses in, LUSH has been able to build a brand image known for its code of ethics and attitudes towards the environment. Chief executive Mark Constantine, in backing the company’s brand image, has openly voiced his and LUSH’s support for a campaign that wants to ban all animal testing in Australia.

By looking at the way LUSH has involved itself in its communities, we can clearly distinguish the connections between LUSH’s approach to managing its business to Freeman’s stakeholder theory. LUSH, by researching Australia’s laws on animal testing, has demonstrated that it pays attention to the important issues of corporate responsibility. Just as Freeman talked about businesses that are bad citizens of the community by not acknowledging its effects of civil society, LUSH has done the opposite in order to be one of the first of its kind to advocate of the permanent banning of animal testing in cosmetics.

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Check out these interesting articles I stumbled upon:

1 – Studying ethics could cause you to act unethical

2 – Business schools teaching ethics

3 – How being ethical can help a company profit