Tag: Ethics

There is a  fine line between social enterprises and those businesses that  just slap on a false sustainability label on to their products. During various lectures in Comm 101, we have discussed on several occasions the importance of ethics, and most recently, the impact of social enterprises and social entrepreneurs.In the external blog site “The Unsuitablog- Exposing Ethical Hypocrites Everywhere!” Keith Farnish writes a post on “How To Spot Greenwash“.

This blog post brought my attention to the concept of Greenwashing and piqued my interest, as during the course of the year, I have observed instances where companies hide under thebanner of some cause in order to appeal to consumers (see breast cancer pink in Bottled Profit).

Keith Farnish mentions some key points in identifying the act of Greenwashing, such as questioning poor scientific claims and looking out for buzzwords such as “clean technology” and “all natural” which often indicate vagueness. Not that I wholly condemn those who do use greenwashing- at least not as much as the Keith Farnish does (the goal of his post is “to make greenwashing as socially unacceptable as consuming hard drugs in front of your grandmother.”) At times, companies that greenwash, do make a positive impact, albeit not as huge as they advertise it to be.

The Unsuitablog, as a whole is an interesting read, as it increases awareness and brings light to hypocritical business and their techniques.

Sources:

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2008/04/10/how-to-spot-greenwash/

http://stopgreenwash.org/

In response to Han Dong’s ethics post titled “Report blames poor management decisions by BP, others for oil spill” , I would like to address recent developments and approach the issue from a marketing perspective.

A year has past since the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and since then BP has attempted to rebuild its carefully constructed image as a company taking major strides towards sustainability. In the past BP has prided itself on its innovation in “riding the green wave”, but the oil spill nearly completely destroyed this image of their brand overnight. BP has however, managed to crawl out of this public relations nightmare and on October 21 2011, the federal government granted BP to continue drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

In an age where the public is becomingly increasingly conscious about environmental issues, BP is literally treading dangerous waters in its attempt to continue drilling and the decision to allow this activity has been met with outcry from victims of the disaster.

Still in terms of public relations bungles, BP seems to be recovering. In fact  Netflix (where its decision to implement Qwikster caused stock prices to drop drastically) fared comparatively worse.

Although “green” still permeates people’s minds, and infractions on the environment can impact a company hard, BP is recovering- albeit slowly.

Sources:

Green to gold : how smart companies use environmental strategy to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage. D.C. Esty and A.S. Winston. Yale University Press, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/business/energy-environment/bp-plan-for-gulf-drilling-is-approved.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=bp&st=Search

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/netflixs-missteps-or-bps-gulf-oil-spill-which-was-worse-for-stock-prices/247332/

 “You can crush a man with journalism.”

~William Randolph Hearst

A common view of journalists is that they are conniving leeches without morals, who are willing to stop at nothing. While this is certainly not true in all cases, the Rupert Murdoch scandal certainly does nothing to dispel this perception.

The News International phone hacking scandal, which has garnered negative global attention was first brought to light during the murder of Milly Dowler, an English school-girl, where it was revealed that News of the World (NoW) hacked into her cellphone. This incident unearthed various News Corp unethical practices such as bribery of police and other illegal reporting techniques. This has also led tothe resignation and arrest of several key players of the News Corp. scandal, as well as the shutdown of the “toxic” brand NoW.

Aside from the obvious corruption within the News Corp. Empire, what disgusts me about this case is the blatant disregard of ethics and sensitivity in the murder of a young girl. Not only did these actions by NoW hinder a six-month long police investigation, but they also gave false hope and agony to Milly Dowler’s family during an already traumatic time.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14124020

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/04/milly-dowler-voicemail-hacked-news-of-world