The world of marketing is a very sensitive industry where marketers have to carefully create campaigns that will eventually create value in their products and brand image for potential buyers. However, this industry has also created marketers who believe campaigns with stereotypes associated with race can have a much bigger impact on potential buyers since people may be able to relate those campaigns with someone they know, a place they have been to , or a person they saw this morning.

The Volkswagen Terrorist commercial is considered to be one of the most racist commercials in recent history.

In order to promote the strength of the polo automobile,  the Volkswagen’s ad campaign features Arabs who are “known” to be suicide bombers. As shown in the picture above, the bomb explodes but makes no damage to the car which proves to be strong enough to resist any type of damage (in this case, a bomb).

This ad was banned long time ago due to the stereotypes that it created regarding Arabs as being always suicide bombers. I feel this was an unethical approach from Volkswagen because it is not only promoting racism but hurting our society at large by creating stereotypes of this kind. This will not only affect Arabs but people who are somehow related to this stereotype or people who want to stop racism around the globe.

Unfortunately, this is one of hundreds of advertisements promoting racism. I strongly believe that ethical marketing laws should be implemented in all companies since the main purpose of marketing is to satisfy the needs and wants between sellers and buyers so each party is better of. Also, creativity with an ethical focus plays an important role since it would be able to create ad campaigns that creates value for customers of all ages. Thus, the target markets will expand and attract more potential buyers, leading to an increase in sales and profits.