Emily Raven's Blog

Believe it or not McDonalds has found yet another way to expand it’s business. McDonalds in Hong Kong is the first McDonalds to offer the new McDonalds Wedding Package. This luxurious package includes a baked apple pie wedding cake, a wedding dress made out of party balloons, kiddie party favours for guests and of course dinner at McDonalds. According to McDonald’s Hong Kong director of corporate communications and relations Helen Cheung, McDonalds has been getting an average of 10 calls per month from people eager to book their weddings at McDonalds and this is only in Hong Kong!

This interesting tactic for Hong Kong McDonalds may work out to be a very profitable strategy for McDonalds all over the world. Demand is rising for cheaper, easier ways to celebrate important life events. Instead of stopping at weddings and birthday parties, people could have any special occasion at McDonalds! Bar or Bat mitzvahs, baby showers or even holidays! How about a McFuneral? If the demand is there, why not?

Burger King has been taking social media by storm. The famous fast-food chain titan has “pushing the envelope” in the case of social media. First it started with whoppervirgins.com, a video production dedicated to finding people across the world who have never eaten hamburgers before and letting them taste test between a Whopper and a McDonald’s Big Mac. The video shows people from many different cultures eating the burgers and loving the Whopper. This is a brilliant social media move because it shows the the large corporation has “heart” and indirectly shows that everyone loves a Whopper!

Burger King’s next big social media move was a Facebook application. With almost every teenager in the world being on Facebook these days it was a fantastic way to promote Whoppers through the younger generation. The Facebook app was called Whooper Sacrifice and allowed Facebook users to earn coupons for free Whoppers by “defriending” ten of their peers. The slogan of the app was “Friendship is Strong, but the Whopper is STRONGER.” The app managed to break up over 200,000 friendships before being shut down due to privacy issues. This was the perfect social media move by Burger King. It grabbed the attention of teenagers through the incentive of free food and the humor of being able to “sacrifice” their friends.

It is now time to answer the age old question….

Which musican really did make the most money in 2009?!

Starting at number five we have

5. Kenny Chesney

The country music super star grossed $65 million in 2009. Although his record sales weren’t the best, Kenny has loyal fans and made his cash this year through touring.

4. Coldplay

In 2008 the alternative rock band “Coldplay” released their album “Viva La Vida” which was the top selling cd that year. Most of the band’s grossed $70 million made in 2009 was from a tour of that album through sixteen countries.

3. Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen had the fourth highest selling tour in 2008 and made his $72 million by performing during the half time show of Super Bowl XLIII and by signing a deal with Walmart to sell his greatest hit album.

2. Beyoncé

In 2009 alone,Beyoncé managed to rake in $87 million! All that money must be from this pop starts double album release, clothing line, starring in TWO movies and a one hundred and ten day tour! Her $87 million is more than double what hubby Jay-z made!

and the winner is………………..

1. Madonna!

This superstars $110 million came from her international tour for her album “Hard Candy.”  It was the highest-grossing international tour of 2008-2009.

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino made more money in 2010 then some people will see in their whole lives. In 2010 alone the G-T-L co-founder raked in over 5 million dollars! That’s a lot of spray tanning. How did this Shore Stud make so much dough? Mike gets paid over $60,000 per EPISODE for being one of the hit show “Jersey Shore“‘s guidos. On top of being a successful reality TV show star, “The Situation” also made his fortune through endorsements with Devotion Vodka, Reebok Zigtech Shoes, an autobiography, a rap song, a workout DVD, a line of chewable vitamins, a clothing line, appearances on “Dancing with the Stars” and of course public appearances. Mike made nearly $1 million dollars this year in public appearances alone.

Now some may say that a TV star making that much money is outrageous, but Charlie Sheen makes 2 million dollars for every episode that he makes of his hit show “Two and a Half Men.”

A topic that has been discussed in COMM 101 and many of my other business courses has been the topic of business ethics. In my opinion where many businesses are very unethical is in their advertising! It’s not only businesses either. A couple of weeks ago I was driving down highway one towards Chilliwack and I saw a large billboard. When I looked closer I realized that the billboard had a picture of a pregnant teenage girl on it and next to her was the caption “Choose life, your mother did.” When I saw this I was shocked. It is extremely unethical to target young girls in difficult situations and the message of the billboard isn’t exactly clear either. Is the message that the teen must choose life if she wants her mother’s approval?  Or is the message that she was an unplanned unwanted pregnancy and her mother had her, so therefore she must do the same because history repeats itself?  This billboard is all about circular reasoning, the centre of unethical advertising.

A major ethical dilemma in the business world is the issue of vehicle recalls.  A great example of this is the legendary Ford Pinto case.  In the 1970’s Ford accelerated the production of the Pinto, its new small car.  Before the car went into production, but after parts had been manufactured, Ford’s engineers discovered a major flaw in the car’s gas tank.  The faulty design created a higher risk of the gas tank bursting into flames when the car was rear ended.  The cost of correcting this defect was $11.00 per car.  Following a cost benefit analysis, known as the Ford Pinto Memo, the Company determined it would be cheaper to pay damages in lawsuits brought on behalf of injured or dead persons, estimated at $49.5 million, than to pay for a recall of the defective vehicles, estimated at a cost of $137 million.  Ford decided to continue producing the Pinto with the defective parts, rather than recall the vehicle.  After many accidents and several deaths resulting from the defective gas tanks, Ford was required to pay out $137 million in damages because of its negligent conduct, and to deter other corporations from ignoring safety to make a quick buck.

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