Recently, there has been a television commercial by J.C. Penney that struck an uproar among the public. Rather than noticing the back-to-school campaign for children, the public took it as a promotion for bullying in school. Is it still ethical to promote a campaign to increase sales and awareness even when it also promotes bullying?
On August 15th, 2013, J.C. Penney released an ad on television making the public aware of its “First Day Look” campaign for kids. In the video, a voiceover of a mom is talking about clothing selections for her children this coming school year. While the voiceover continues, a child is then portrayed as sitting alone at a lunch table. From this, the potential customers claimed that the child is left out because his clothes are not as cool as other students. I agree with this claim and think that J.C. Penney’s commercial is quite problematic as kids should not be judge for their clothing. It will eventually evolve into and help encourage bullying. In today’s society, we are constantly supporting an anti-bullying environment where every student can be treated equally no matter their race, culture, or appearance. This is why I think J.C. Penney’s commercial, although not intended, is non-ethical.
Because of all the speculation, J.C. Penney took down the advertisement and released a public statement that it was not intended to promote bullying, but simply an act to make the public aware that kids should create their own individuality and make a good first impression as they go back to school. Maybe I am interpreting the ad too much; however, I believe that every advertisement should try to refrain from the possible emergence of a non-ethical topic.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/14/jcpenney-back-to-school-ad_n_3756517.html