Evaluating Ethical Issues in Advertising: A Business Perspective

This essay delves into the ethical considerations surrounding advertising campaigns, particularly focusing on a case study involving a struggling toymaker and an unconventional advertising strategy. It explores the ethical dilemmas inherent in business practices and the various schools of thought t...Read More

Issue: Should the toymaker adopt Nathan’s Ad campaign?
A. There are certain ethical issues that are also called dilemmas related to business practices,
which create a situation in which a choice has to be made between two different options (or
may be more). These options, however, fail to resolve the situation in an ethically acceptable
manner. In these circumstances, a person always has societal as well as personal ethical
guidelines that might provide him a satisfactory outcome. In this regard, any business is not
immune to the ethical challenges within the organization. The different ethical issues that are
mostly associated with the business organizations are – lack of integrity, organizational
relationship problems, conflicts of interest and misleading advertising ("Virtue Ethics |
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy", n.d.). Therefore, it is always expected from the
business that they behave in such a manner that add value to the business but without
inappropriate consequences for any other group or individual. We can find many examples of
ethical mistakes in which the decision makers pursued those practices that benefited them at
the cost of society. The recession due to 2008 economic collapse and Enron Scandal are the
shining examples of individuals who chose personal rewards at the expense of the interest of
society at large.
B. In relation to the issue in question, a struggling toymaker approached Nathan Fielder in order
to seek help. Nathan in turn did help him with a strange advertising campaign. In that ad
campaign, Nathan addresses children as babies and seems to suggest that nobody would
respect their age unless they buy a ball called “Doink-It”. As strange as the ad campaign
itself looks, it is just another way of telling kids that they need that product (Doink-It) if they
want to be cool or popular.

The complexity that arises in building a strong ethical environment in an organization is
because of the fact that there are many schools of ethical thoughts. There are different
schools of thought that could be of immense help for the businesses to frame future strategic
decisions so that the ethical behavior is followed. These ethical perspectives are – utilitarian,
deontological and virtuous. Let us use these perspectives in this issue that we are dealing
with.
1) Utilitarian Approach: It is perhaps the most simple and seemingly the most ideal
perspective as far as ethical behavior is concerned. The first question of that is being
asked by a utilitarian individual is – what would be the ideal outcome for the
maximum number of the people regarding a particular issue? So, according to
utilitarian principle of ethics, the actions are morally right if and only if they
maximize the greater good ("An Explanation of Moral Theories & Traditions", 2016).
2) Deontological Approach: It was first propounded by Emanuel Kant whose central
theme is duty. That is, certain actions are to be carried out on the basis of one’s duties
and obligations. So, these actions are intrinsically right or wrong, irrespective of the
consequences that follow these actions. In other words, some actions cannot be
justified on the basis of their consequences even if they bring benefit for an
individual.
3) Virtue Ethics: the virtue ethics was popularized by Greek philosopher Aristotle.
According to this theory, the ethics are all about agents not actions or consequences.
So, this theory essentially proposes that an ethical life is the one that possesses right
character traits (virtues) that in turn produce an appropriate moral character. Unlike
deontology, which focuses on moral rules, virtue ethics focuses on developing good

habits of character. In other words, virtue ethics suggests to inculcate virtuous traits
and dispositions to act in a certain way so that bad character traits could be avoided
("Virtue Ethics", 2012).
So, the ethical dilemma that is present in the issue at hand can be best resolved by
utilitarian approach. Referring to the ad campaign of Nathan Fielder that he produced for
the struggling toymaker, he once revealed that his approach is all about making an
impactful satirical statement against those business practices that represent the culture of
corruption running in the corporate world of today. The fact that people also highly
impressed with his innovative approach to make satirical advertising punch lines.
Therefore, we can conclude that the consequences of his actions have made people think
out of the box and in this way a significant number of people get benefitted with that.
C. The fatal flaw to the utilitarian approach is that it seems to be impractical as it is simply
unrealistic to calculate and measure all the possible outcomes of every act. Moreover, it may
stop one’s ability to bring about the best consequences, particularly in the situations where a
quick response is extremely vital. Also, in contrast to the deontological ethics, where
Immanuel Kant suggested that “act so that you treat humanity, both in your own person and
in that of another, always as an end and never merely as a means.” it is, therefore, very
important that the basis of our moral needs is a standard set of rationality. This standard set
of rationality form the strong foundations of categorical imperative. This profound rationality
includes all of our duties. Deontology further goes on to state that respect for one another and
proper behavior serve as a groundwork for all ethical reasoning (Moreland, 2016).
Furthermore, as per the virtue ethics, we can approach the perfect implementation of any
particular act as well as behavior through our rational minds. This principle is important in

that it discards the justification of the principle of ends justifying the means. It essentially
means that a particular act should be performed because it is desirable in itself and not for the
sake for anything else.
Therefore, the ad campaigns produced by Nathan Fielder should have a sense of morality and
duty and obligation associated with them. He should have been acted in such a manner that
should have virtuous traits and dispositions.
D. According to deontological ethics, the moral basis of our actions is only and only determined
by their rightness or wrongness. It effectively means that it is categorically wrong if we lie in
any circumstances, no matter what the consequences would be. But the fallacy of this
philosophical argument will be apparent by a simple example, if someone wants to kill an
innocent person and he is asking the whereabouts of that innocent person. If we know what
he is asking then, clearly lying would be the best thing that do to protect the person. But at
this moment, according to Kant’s deontological theory, we would be required to tell the truth
(Whetstone, 2001). Does this seem reasonable to anyone?
Furthermore, the difficulty with the virtue ethics is just to figure out what would be the
characteristics that are counted as virtues. However, different cultures can have different
definitions of virtues. In another example, courage is often regarded as a virtue. But some
crimes as serious as bank robbery certainly require a level of courage in order to carry out the
robbing of bank. However, we generally agree that robbing is morally wrong.

References
An Explanation of Moral Theories & Traditions. (2016). Seven Pillars Institute. Retrieved 26
October 2016, from http://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/morality-101/moral-traditions
Moreland, J. (2016). Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism Vs. Deontological Ethics - Christian
Research Institute. Christian Research Institute. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from
http://www.equip.org/article/ethics-theories-utilitarianism-vs-deontological-ethics/
Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Iep.utm.edu. Retrieved 26 October 2016,
from http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/
Virtue Ethics. (2012). Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
Whetstone, J. T. (2001). How virtue fits within business ethics. Journal of Business
Ethics, 33(2), 101-114.