Category: Ethics

In many of these countries where the Sweatshops are set-up, job opportunities are extremely scarce due to low living standards and weak economies. And it is unethical for these sweatshops to take advantage of the dire situations of these people to focus on profit gaining rather than considering the well-being of their employees.

In addition, the contrast between Disney’s projected brand image and the actual reality into making that image possible is unethical. Disney’s targeted market is children, and as you know, the Disney brand is all about happiness, family, children, childhood innocence, wonders of being a child, etc. However, the very children who are making these perception possible are suffering from complete opposite situations.

Not only is the concept of Sweatshops unethical, many of these sweatshops are unethical in operation. Audit companies check on these factories regularly for working standards and treatment of employees. However, before each inspection, notification and material will be sent out for employees to study. In particular, child workers will be coached as to how to answer, or lie, if you will, to inspectors’ questions.

Lastly, this goes against Disney’s corporate founding values. Walt Disney, an innovative animator who pioneered entertainment for children in the 1 believed and viewed children as individuals who were not inferior, but equal to adults, and had often described the minds of children as “our national treasure.” And it is unfortunate that these minds are wasted on providing cheap labour.

To conclude, I would like to leave you with a quote by Walt Disney to consider: “The problem with the world today is that people grow up, they forget what it’s like to be an 12 year-old. They patronize, and they treat children as inferiors”

As we’ve seen in Comm101, ethics matter. While this can be demonstrated through some obvious factors such as safety, I think there is a more subtle factor that can be discussed—–honesty.

The importance of honesty is often neglected in the realm of business, where the basis of its functionality is, quite simply, to attract as many people to buy as much as your stuff as possible.

I think the sense of ‘unethicalness’ ultimately stems from a feeling of lack of choice, a sense of being mislead into a situation in which you did not willfully intend. In the case of Active Periodicals, Inc., monthly magazine subscriptions were charged from participants of so-called free ‘surveys’ that were marketed as having $1000 rewards. I think the essential problem here is not monthly fees that followed, but rather the deception of the result of participation. If the participants knew of the aftermath, they would have simply CHOSEN to not participate. However, this choice did not take place since no such freedom was given.

As a result, the contrast between what was expected and actuality evolved into revolt and anger. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with promoting products to get as much attention as possible; as long as it is “engaged in open and free competition without deception or fraud” (Friedman).