Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

I'm curious... why should they?

More importantly... will they?

Dear emisai,

There's a lesson here for all of us about the world of global commerce.

Who are you to tell multi-billion dollar companies that they "should" do anything, let alone consider their social responsibility before their profitability? The heads of these companies report to Boards of Directors, and to shareholders.

If you don’t like their business practices, don’t buy
their products. But know this: these kinds of global corporations can withstand pretty much ANYTHING that the media throws at them.

Fact: eating too many burgers turns you into a lump of lard. But here’s the thing: no one’s holding a gun to anyone’s head and telling them “Eat this burger and shovel these fries into your pie hole or we’ll blow out your brains!”

Instead, the messages are “Junk food makes you happy!” And because people want to BE happy, they eat the junk food. Some of them eat rather a lot of it, which then gives us other shows like “The Biggest Loser”.

When was the last time you saw someone weighing 400 lbs in a TV commercial for a fast food brand, other than a brand that was peddling their healthy options in some way? Note that 99% of people in burger commercials are thin, trim, happy, and living in Happyville!

Right or wrong, these companies are in business to make money: their supplier chains are such that they can wield enough power to prop up or destroy whole industries—even whole economies should they choose to.

The watch word when it comes to the buyer taking action to consume these products is CHOICE. Consider asking WHY people choose to eat junk food, THEN, look at the buyer deceiving himself that he's making a healthy choice.

You said: “I have gathered ideas on a) marketing practices done by these industries-as very unethical and deceptive …”

STOP!

If you’re going to publish stuff like this and associate company names to these kinds of statement and if you haven’t already got yourself a GREAT lawyer, you might want to hire one.

If you’re going to wave banners of “unethical and deceptive” marketing in the faces of any major food supplier you need SOLID FACTS, CAST IRON EVIDENCE, and a spine of steel.

If you lack these things or are not prepared to arm yourself with them, prepare yourself to be taken to the cleaners by armies of legal teams retained solely by these companies to protect their brands at all costs.

Individuals have a responsibility to take care of their own health but corporate giants in the food industry are just plain taking advantage. They purposely pump out goods that are filled with harmful chemicals. I believe they should be held partially responsible for the well-being of the general public as well. Isn't it that the United States is or has one of the highest obese populations? Capitalism is literally killing us.