Business Ethics – Tommy Chen's Blog

Business Ethics Question related to an ad campaign that blame on McDonald’s

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Burger Giant McDonald got blamed for heart diseases by an ad campaign by PCRM.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704190704575490011354963240.html?KEYWORDS=burger

Is an ad campaign that blames McDonald’s for heart disease fair or unfair?

In my opinion, I think this ad campaign is not fair on McDonald’s. Firstly, although PCRM is trying to raise awareness of heart diseases through this ad campaign, they have better alternatives such as targeting a more general term “fast food” instead of McDonald’s. And they also lead me to think, why McDonald’s but not KFC, Burger King, or even Wendy’s? Is there a scheme behind? Secondly, these damages from social media always take long time for the company to rebuild their reputation. PCRM’s decision may not be a wise one.

Indeed, I think PCRM’s purpose and direction is right, and I support how they teach people about these potential side effects of fast food. For McDonald’s, I think they will be able to defeat this challenge since they are experienced to dealing these health concern from societies. And think deeper, this ad actually also will help people to remember about McDonald’s – no matter if it’s a positive or negative message.

Intro About Business Ethics

Suicides in Foxconn’s factory in southern Chinese city of Shenzhen earlier in the year is an best example of how unethical some businesses can be, sometimes even big companies. In only five months, there are twelve employees committed suicides in this Foxconn’s factory and more have attempted. These tragedies happened because the employees suffered from massive workload (i.e average 10~12 hours of work everyday), stress and unfair treatments (i.e low income $130~140 Canadian Dollars per month).

Here is an detailed CNN report on this case: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/01/china.foxconn.inside.factory/index.html?iref=allsearch

I think the way how Foxconn treat their employees is nothing different from exploitation. Abusing the advantage of large labour market in China, Foxconn never worried about losing their employees; instead, Foxconn neglect employees’ physical and mental conditions, and even provide its employees such poor salaries, working conditions, and benefits while it’s earning over 40 millions a year from Apple, Dell and Sony, etc. Consequently, suicides took places and Foxconn experienced a average lost of 50,000 employees per month in last five month; furthermore, after its public reputation is ruined, Foxconn also lost trust from some of its partners. From this issue, it’s not hard to tell how important ethics are in business world.