Speaking about marketing ethic, I have to mention the popular fast food industry. Despite the fact that McDonald’s law suit happened years ago, its impact is still strong enough to create discussion up to date. People’s addiction to fast food shows the great success that fast food industry made in marketing, but is it ethical to only advertise the positive aspects of its products?
Children are the most vulnerable and influential consumer group in the market. McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants are keen in make use of them in increasing their sell. McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys, with one included in 20% of all sales(Source: QSR via Motley Fool). Its mascot, Mr. McDonald, appears friendly, helpful, and cheerful on the commercials. All these successful marketing scheme effectively attracts 68 million customers per day for McDonald’s, that’s about 1 percent of the world’s population(Source: Societe General via Dominic Chu). However, these also form one of the factors creating the increasing trend of world’s obesity.
Japanese McDonalds SpongeBob Comercial
It is definite that these fast food business are not lying about their product, but they are not telling all the information to the customers. We see no warning of high calories on the TV commercials, neither the trans-fat or LDL cholesterol contains information on the package. The absence of this information leads to more consumption of harmful diet and health issues.
Fast food industry is just one examples of advertisement of this kind. Many industries contains marketing schemes which affects the customers’ daily choices, and even values. Do the companies really have the right to control individual’s decision? It is hard to prove and judge. The only precaution we can make as customers is to understand the motive behind those fancy commercials and think critically while evaluation the true stories behind it.
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