{"id":1,"date":"2012-09-06T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T04:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/?p=1"},"modified":"2012-10-08T13:58:03","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T20:58:03","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/2012\/09\/06\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"TOMS \u201cSocially Responsible\u201d Intentions: Purely altruistic, or profit-driven?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/files\/2012\/09\/l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6\" title=\"l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/files\/2012\/09\/l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/files\/2012\/09\/l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b1.jpg 249w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/files\/2012\/09\/l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Many teenagers have been swept up in the phenomenon of wearing shoes that mimic fabric bandages being wrapped around their feet, otherwise known as TOMS shoes \u2013 shoes that are fragile and cheaply crafted. So why are teenagers so keen on paying big bucks for such hideous shoes? The answer is simple: TOMS has made \u201c<strong>Social Responsibility<\/strong>\u201d a key attribute in their company\u2019s mission statement, which has psychologically<strong> lured<\/strong> consumers to buy into their brand. Today I will explore the ethical debate of the company\u2019s \u201cnotion of giving\u201d &#8211; whether their altruistic intentions are for the sake of relieving child sufferage, or merely a <strong>cruel marketing scheme<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>TOMS slogan is \u201cGiving is what fuels us\u201d. For every pair purchased, a 2nd pair is donated to an under-privileged child. I commend TOMS for their generosity; however, I question the <strong>ethics<\/strong> behind their noble intentions. <strong>Maslow\u2019s Hierarchy of Needs<\/strong>\u00a0emphasizes the importance of self-actualization (which includes morality\/ethics) as a higher level of human needs. Now the question lies, is TOMS ultimately exploiting our natural human needs of being \u201cdo-gooders\u201d to buy into their brand? And if that\u2019s the case, is it ethical to use charity as a means of boosting your business?<\/p>\n<p>Further Reading:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/deadwildroses.wordpress.com\/tag\/unethical-toms-shoes\/\">http:\/\/deadwildroses.wordpress.com\/tag\/unethical-toms-shoes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Picture Reference:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">http:\/\/cdn100.iofferphoto.com\/img3\/item\/l_toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b22\/034\/145\/toms-shoes-men-s-flax-canvas-shoes-008-in-box-004b.jpg<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many teenagers have been swept up in the phenomenon of wearing shoes that mimic fabric bandages being wrapped around their feet, otherwise known as TOMS shoes \u2013 shoes that are fragile and cheaply crafted. So why are teenagers so keen on paying big bucks for such hideous shoes? The answer is simple: TOMS has made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/3"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sameenakamdar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}