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Cases on UN-Ethical Marketing - TOBACCO!

  • 1.  Cases on UN-Ethical Marketing - TOBACCO!

    Posted 02-16-2012 16:15

    Tobacco advertising is the perfect case study -- especially for "light" low-tar cigarettes!  Plus, you can get videos of the old ads on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udc3DITXhCQ&feature=related, which even includes the use of celebrity spokespersons and authority figures (doctors, even) recommending smoking.  And, if you want to show how far off base the tobacco industry ads are in the U.S., check out some of the ads on Canadian TV and on the cigarette packages sold in Canada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntKQRWnDTRE.  In fact, the U.S. would have the same kind of packaging starting this year  (warning of the dire results of smoking on at least half of the package) if the powerful tobacco industry hadn't sued raising a 1st Amendment issue over being forced to disclose the negative aspects of their product).

     

    In short, you'll never find a better case illustrating advertising with total disregard for the truth (and callous disregard for mankind) than with tobacco advertising.

     

     

    Gwen Alexis

     

    Gwendolyn Yvonne Alexis, Ph.D., J.D.
    Associate Professor of Management
    MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
    Bey Hall 237
    West Long Branch, NJ 07764-1898
    galexis@monmouth.edu

    From: Social Issues in Management Listserv [SIM@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] on behalf of Valente, Mike [mvalente@ivey.uwo.ca]
    Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 3:30 PM
    To: SIM@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [SIM] Cases on Ethical Marketing

    Hi Everyone,

    Does anyone know of a case that focuses on ethical marketing (e.g. Advertising to children, persuasive advertising) whereby the case implicitly or explicitly illuminates an inherent tension between corporate interests and societal interests.  By tension, I mean the company's ambition to engage in marketing tactics for the sake of revenue generation and market share yet at the cost of lost consumer choice, biased perception of reality, and materialism.

    Examples include marketing an identity to sell a product (e.g. using the identity of cool and hip to sell cigarettes or the identity of being popular to sell beauty products), normalizing a particular social behaviour (e.g. "Everybody uses pain killers as part of their exercise routine"), or marketing beauty products to children.  

    The case doesn't have to be on this topic explicitly but just needs to present a platform through which the students can debate whether it is okay for firms to exploit consumer vulnerabilities in the marketing of their products. 

    Any suggestions would be great. 

    Mike Valente



    ___________________________
    Mike Valente, PhD
    Assistant Professor in Strategy and Business Sustainability
    Richard Ivey School of Business
    University of Western Ontario
    1151 Richmond Street North
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    mvalente@ivey.uwo.ca
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    Check out my blog at www.valentemike.blogspot.com

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