The other day I was checking out one of my classmate’s blog, the post Isn’t Audi Going Overboard came to my attention. It talks about Audi’s “weird” strategies of turning its head directly against other luxury premium brands such as BMW, Lexus and Mercedes. The author expresses his opinion about Audi’s behaviour in its recent “unethical” commercials.
Below is a sample commercial:
In my personal opinion, Audi did not actually take a dangerous step towards the ethics issue, but rather making an unwise decision in its competition. Its attempt of lowering other brand images will eventually backfire once the competitors get angry – and they surely will do – if the campaigns become overly wide-spread. Competition means improvement, not the creation of feud and grudge among players.
So I would rather call it “unwise” than “unethical”.