Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

gpaynter,

Very good question and I would say quite spot on.I have just heard recently of a Danone campaign aimed at school kids where the company actively involves pupils and also teachers to build its brand awareness thru games and fun activities revolving around one of its brands.It did arouse quite a hectic reaction.To me it's unethical when it hits kids totally unprepared and unprotected -as you can see school authorities acted as accomplices and not guardians.With TV spots and POS materials I would not mind it at all.Of all places I would say schools should be free of it.
Just my opinion.

Adam

Humm I think it is pushing it a bit, but then again schools need money and the companies give it to them.

Thank God (or what ever your religion is) that they don’t do it in New Zealand.

It reminds me of the Simpson’s (you know the one with Bart as a Supreme Court judge at the end) and the have the children stacked on 3 levels in front of a TV and troy maclore teaching "if Joey drinks one Pepsi and has another how much refreshed is he?”.

Also ethics are very different for each company, for example IFAC (the international federation of accounting consultants) states that in there definition of ethical behaviour that company actions should not harm the public, but they define "the public" as the finical community, eg people that will be affected in a financially way.

well to Ford your life is worth $278,000 (adjusted for inflation). Google "ford pinto". https://www.fordpinto.com/blowup2.htm

I don't know about the bsa, but you could try looking at there website to find out there ethics code.

Very good question.
This is the question that bothered me quite a lot lately.
I find it absolutely fine when I see/hear ads on TV, radio, outdoor, etc. with fast food or any fast moving product directed at kids. They can recognize their favorite brands from the early childhood, and this already builds their brand loyalty: when they recognize some brand they like - it is really cool.
But.
When I see the ads of some fizzy drink, or some hamburger on the copy-books, drawing-books, school manuals, or even fiction books for children... it can only evoke negative feelings in me. I mean, a kid will look at this hamburger during the whole year of study, it is very much against any ethical norms for me. Moreover, it can even make a negative impact on a kid's perception of the brand, thus it's a disadvantage for a company which owns this brand. And what about fiction books? Some (good) books kids read more than once, and they can even reread them in a few years... let's imagine this brand doesn't exist anymore... So this type of ads I do find against ethics.
But this is all imho, sure. Could be wrong.

Yeah, and let me tell you what astonished me immensely, in a negative way, a couple of years ago.

Kind of a case study.

I've bought several small books for my son from a publishing house I actually like. I understand they need sponsors and such, but I don't know why placing the logos of the sponsors on the back cover of the books. But it's not the main thing. This publishing house provides both classical literature and modern literature by very good and interesting authors; and they also give a chance to some very young writers to try their forces. So one of the books was written by a young unknown author, and in the story, there was a product placement of one telecommunication company. The mother of kids was working there. And it was so clumsy, you can't even imagine... Her kids disappeared, and she could easily find them by the internet only because she was working in that company... Btw, due to changing of shareholders and some other things, this company has changed its name recently. Needless to say, we don't read that book, and for some reason, my son never asks to read it to him. He likes other books pretty much though. So here you can see a good illustration of a negative impact of such ads. Not the example with the fast food, but still...