Eric Kelly was a four time national boxing champion with aspirations of a grand career in professional boxing until a street fight gone wrong took his dreams away from him. He now operates Church Street Gym in New York which has become the most popular gym for Wall Street investment bankers thanks to a viral video published by Kelly.  

The ethical dilemma that I wish to talk about today is: is it ethical from a marketing perspective to sell to an audience that one has publicly denounced?

I won’t be able to supply a definitive yes or no answer as marketing is a subject of gray areas.

As you can see in the embed video, Eric Kelly carries a great deal of disdain for the New York Wall Street types that enter his gym everyday. This isn’t just a media play by Mr. Kelly either as evident in this article by sbnation (a sports blog). 

Kelly’s brand has become infamously synonymous with the image that portrays “an angry black man insulting rich, nerds.” Oddly enough, it is the very people who Kelly ridicules who continue to supply his business with money.

This is due to the fact that an exchange is taking place between Kelly and the bankers that satisfies the core principle of marketing. Kelly has created something of value to the bankers which is a honest, truthful examination of who they are as human being when they are in front of another man ready to fight, not in front of a computer trading stocks.

It’s Kelly’s ability to humorously and honestly deprecate the investment bankers who may not deal with such a raw environment in their day jobs that has satisfied the customer’s needs and wants. It may or may not be ethical, but at the end of the day, the bankers are willingly subjecting themselves to Mr. Kelly’s services fully knowing what will happen to them because they are happy with the gym.