Management Ethics American Character and Society

Questions: 1.Who should decide (a) how much information should be provided by manufacturers, (b) how good products should be, and (c) how truthful advertisements should be? The government? Manufacturers? Consumer Groups? The free market? Explain your views. 2.Carefully examine two advertisements taken from current news papers or magazines and assess the extent to which they meet what you would consider adequate ethical standards for advertising. Explain and Defend your standards of ethics in advertising. Answers: 1. As stated by, a consumer friendly company should always provide useful and helpful information regarding a particular product or service. A manufacturer should not only be concerned about the minimum requirements but should also be responsible to provide detailed information about the product. The Consumer Bill of Rights also propose that consumers should not have a limited right upon the information of commercial products. This right is important to stop malicious practices of major business manufacturers (Graves, 2016). Therefore, it can be easily stated that it should be the Consumer Groups and not the manufacturers or the government who will be responsible for deciding the information to be provided by the manufacturers. It has to be understood that a manufacturer will always try to manipulate the thinking of consumers and will provide information that influence consumers and compel them to buy the product. Same objective can be applied for the free market as well; that in order to boost sales of product, exaggerated information is supplied. On the other hand, government being not biased and in order to improve the economic condition of the State might provide certain inappropriate information to increase exchange of products. However, the consumer groups who are the buyers and consumers of the product should be aware of information including the ingredients of the product, its manufacturing and expiry dates being at the priority list (Kaal, Klosek Waleski, 2012). It is only based on the information on the packaging or advertisement of the product, the consumer will have the right on their purchase. 2. In the view point of Schudson, (2013), advertising agencies should have a responsibility towards building a constructive force in the business. The advertising standard code as adopted by the American Association of Advertising Agency states that advertising agencies must recognize an obligation, not only for their clients but for the public and the media as well whom they employ. Therefore, abiding by certain common sets of standard practices is indeed important. For example: Mentos Print Advertisement It has to be understood that Mentos is a refreshing gum and it has no nutritive value that might help to increase intelligence of a person. Thus, unfair tactics have been used to portray the benefits of the product. The basic theme behind this advertisement was to give tribute to the great scientist and portraying that Mentos provide refreshment and help people to get ideas. However, the advertisement did not provide any kind of information related to the ingredients of the product. The creative form created a false and misleading exaggerated statement. The Eraser Advertisement This advertisement of The Eraser portrayed its effect on the user. However, it has to be understood that it falls under the responsibility of the advertisers to warn people on its side effects in case if a person has allergy to some products. However, as commented by Berger, (2015), that advertisement is one of the important frameworks to meet the level of competition among the same products and services in the market. It is for the reason, some advertisements are found to degrade the basic ethics of advertisements that automatically arise question on ethical approach made to frame the advertisement. References: Berger, A. A. (2015).Ads, fads, and consumer culture: Advertising's impact on American character and society. Rowman Littlefield. Graves, B. (2016, July). Consumer demand, innovation and opportunity for co-products. In2016 Joint Annual Meeting. Asas. Kaal, A., Klosek, J., Waleski, B. (2012). US Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights: Principles and Impact The Obama Administration's Call for the Enactment of Baseline Federal Privacy Legislation and Its Potential Implications on Existing US Privacy Laws.Computer law review international, (3), 65-72. Schudson, M. (2013).Advertising, the uneasy persuasion (RLE Advertising): Its dubious impact on American society. Routledge.