"Man ought to regard himself, not
as something separated and detached, but as a citizen of the world, a member of
the vast commonwealth of nature and to the interest of this great community, he
ought at all times to be willing that his own little interest should be
sacrificed."
--Adam Smith (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1790, p.140)
--Adam Smith (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1790, p.140)
"though it is worth while to
attain the end merely for one man, it is finer and more godlike to attain it
for a nation or for city-states" Aristotle
(Nicomachean Ethics 1:2)
Ok. I know
these are lofty ideals, especially in regard to the modern agenda which seems
to be survival of the fattest, but we should be talking about ethical
marketing. Maybe more now than ever.
Recent events
such as the overturning of Middle Eastern governments, worldwide big business
protests, bank bailouts, all can be traced to the separation of poor and rich
that is happening across the global economy.
We are pretty
fortunate in Canada
to have an oppositional government to keep things from getting TOO carzy, but
it doesn’t mean we don’t feel it here too. For an example closer to home, it’s
possible that most of us have opened bills from service providers and wondered
why your bill is higher than expected. Possibly a new charge or two that you
have no clue what it even means?
It just seems
too easy for those in the black to take advantage of those in the red.
I remember
buying a cell phone package when I was a younger sucker. Strolling along in a
dimly lit mall, when I was allured to the display of phones with attractive
price tags on them.
$0 was the
one that caught my eye.
Then they
handed me a multi page legal document with fine print from top to bottom. “Sign
here, here, and here. Initial…and…were done!” She said.
Needless to
say, after 2 months, my bills were rarely under what she quoted and when I
decided to cancel, they charged me $250.00 for that alone.
I should have
had a lawyer on retainer with me. It might have been cheaper.
The fact of
the matter is the service providers don’t expect people in a mall to have their
lawyers, they know the demographic is young people wanting tech toys with
little money in there pockets. They have done the research. They have the
resources to make this happen so they do. It’s dirty pool.
Is it my
responsibility as the consumer to avoid these situations? To some extent yes, but it is certainly the
responsibility of the vendor to let their potential customers in on any
secrets, be they hidden in fine print or just “surprise” mystery charges along
the way.
Sometimes
it’s not easy to draw the line between ethical and unethical advertising. Ads
are constantly preying on out natural instincts all the time, but it just seems
to me that too much is of the harmful nature.
- John Greenberg, JACtunes Media
