Ethical Dilemma: Unilever's Stance on Online Advertising Practices

This essay examines the business ethics surrounding Unilever's threat to pull advertisements from Facebook and Google due to their unethical advertising practices, including fake news, child exploitation, and political manipulation. The paper analyzes this issue through various ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, rights theory, and virtue ethics, providing a comprehensive overview of their applications in the context of Unilever's decision. It argues that Unilever's stance aligns with ethical principles, particularly when viewed through the lenses of utilitarianism, right, and virtue theories, as the advertising practices of these platforms mislead consumers. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct in business and the need for companies to take a stand against unethical advertising strategies employed by major online platforms, advocating for transparency and consumer protection.

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Business Ethics 1
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Ethical theories............................................................................................................................................2
Counter the position....................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

Business Ethics 2
Introduction
In the present times, it is important that all the business organizations follow ethical conduct so
that healthy competition is maintained at the marketplace. Other than that, ethical behavior is
important to assure that the organization do not breach any laws during its operations. The
business ethics evaluate the ethical issues present in the business environments. The business
ethics assist the business organizations in maintaining better relations with their stakeholders. It
refers to contemporary standards, principles and set of values, which can be used by the
companies in maintaining good relations with the organizations (Lucas, Van Wee & Maat,
2016). The present paper has analyzed the issue of Unilever’s threat to pull advertisements from
Facebook and Google. It is an issue of business ethics, as online search engines and social media
companies are using unethical advertising strategies. It is misleading the customers. In this
essence, the present paper will discuss the news article, different ethical theories and their
application on the ethical issue.
Ethical theories
Ethics have a significant importance in the society. They assist in establishing law and order in
the society. As the business organizations are a part of the society, they should behave in
accordance to the law and order of the society. The business ethics are moral principles, which
guide the business organization in behaving in accordance to the law. These principles determine
the actions of the business organizations in the society. The ethical conduct is the phenomenon
through which the people can distinguish between wrong and the right actions (Goetghebeur,
Wagner, Bond & Hofmann, 2015). This process can easily identify the unethical business
practices and the business organizations can easily avoid them. In the business environment,

Business Ethics 3
there are certain practices, which come under unethical conduct. It includes the unlawful use of
copyright material and engagement in the bribery. However, in the business environment, it is
fairly difficult to differentiate between the good ethical practices and the bad ethical practices. It
is the responsibility of the company to provide competitive returns to different stakeholders and
to treat all the employees fairly (Counts, Pitre & Sullivan, 2018). Moreover, it is also the
responsibility of the organization to engage in operations, which can minimize the harm to the
environment and reduce the damage to the community.
Therefore, it is important that the organization follows some ethical codes whole operating in the
marketplace. The business organizations should set out core values and standards. The
companies should also follow voluntary codes of practice, which regulate the business practice in
the specific industry. These ethical codes of conduct are designed with the support of the
government, employees and the local communities. There should be specific set pf principles and
practices, which ensures that there is security of the employees and the volatile operations of the
company does not impact on the local population (Salloch, Wäscher, Vollmann & Schildmann,
2015). The companies should also assure that their operations do not impact on the employees
and the local people in its operations. It is the responsibility of the organization to make profit
and provide maximum value to the stakeholders.
Several ethical theories have need designed to assist the individuals and the decision-makers to
analyze different aspects of ethical dilemma and lead them to take ethically sound decisions.
There are several theories, such as deontology, utilitarianism, rights and the virtue theory. The
deontology class of theories state that the people should adhere to their duties and obligations so
that they can make ethically sound decisions. A person following deontological theory will
make consistent decisions as they will be set on the individual’s set of duties (Winkler &

Business Ethics 4
Duminy, 2016). However, there is no logical or rational basis of taking decisions. The
deontological set of theory is normative ethical position, which judges the morality of an action
based on the rules. A person should fulfill his duties and obligations as a rule.
Utilitarianism is another set of ethical theories, which states that all those actions are ethical,
which have good outcomes. It is dependent on the ability of a person to predict the consequences
of an action. The utilitarian person takes an action, which yields maximum benefit to the society.
It seeks to take action, which is beneficial to most of the people and can be achieved through
fairest and just means. It is based on the concept of utility. The theory states that the best action
is one which maximizes utility of the actions (Uhlmann, Pizarro & Diermeier, 2015). The utility
is defined in several ways; however, the major concern is maintaining the well-being of the
sentiments. The utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory, which puts emphasis on the
outcomes or consequences of the action in choosing different actions in case of ethical dilemma.
However, the challenge of this theory is that it can result in wrong predictions and ultimately
lead to actions, which are not beneficial for the society (Ferauge, 2012).
The ethical theories based on the rights state that the society imparts individual rights to every
human being and the ethical conduct should protect these rights and safeguarding these rights
should be given highest priority. These rights are ethical, as majority of the society endorses
them. However, the person must decipher the rights of different individuals in a society
(Thornton, Pan, Erlien & Gerdes, 2017). The individual rights are also determined by the goals
and the ethical rights of the society.
Virtue is another set of ethical theory, which states that and individual has to be analyzed by his
character. According to this theory, ethics should not be focused on the normal behavior of a

Business Ethics 5
person; however, it should emphasize on the character of an individual. It focusses on the morals,
reputation and the motivation of an individual.
Counter the position
The current issue can be discussed through the application of different theories. The
utilitarianism states that an organization or society should engage in actions, which are targeted
towards the welfare of the society. However, the advertisement platforms such as Google and
Facebook are publishing fake news, child exploitation, sexism, racism and political
manipulation. It is reducing the consumer trust in these platforms. Other than that, these actions
are also misleading and can be considered as ethically wrong. Therefore, the action of Unilever
is ethically correct. However, several other large organizations should come along with Unilever
to push change in these online platforms. Google and Facebook are major players of social media
platforms and account for 73% of the total digital advertising. There are also several other issues
while using these online platforms for advertisements. The response of Facebook and Google to
handle fake news and extremist content has been very slow (Ann-Russon, 2018).
However, the deontological theory states that all the actions, which follow rules or laws, are
ethical (Holyoak & Powell, 2016). It can be critiqued that the advertising strategy followed by
Google and Facebook do not breach any law; therefore, they are justified by this ethical theory.
If the same case is analyzed by the rights theory, it can be stated that case of misleading
advertising is breaching the information right of the internet users (Yücel, Elibol & Dağdelen,
2009). The internet users access these social media tools and search engines, so that they can
access correct or authentic information. However, these sites are favoring the companies,
through which they can achieve additional revenue. The virtue theory also supports the action of

Business Ethics 6
Unilever. According to this theory, a man or an organization should follow ethical conduct and
follow virtuous behavior (Eccles, Perkins & Serafeim, 2012). However, Google and Facebook
are not following ethical conduct.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the approach of Unilever is to pull out its advertisement from Google
and Facebook is correct and ethical as these organizations are using unjust and unethical
advertising techniques. When this step is evaluated from the perspective of utilitarianism, right
and the virtue theory, it is identified that the companies are misleading their customers as they
are giving wrong information in the advertisements. However, deontological theory is supporting
the advertising techniques of these companies as they are not indulging in illegal activities. The
deontological theory states that as long as the companies are following the rules and laws, they
should be considered as ethical. However, the utilitarianism theory states that the basis of ethics
should be outcomes of the action. The advertising policies of Google are misleading the
customers and therefore, it is not ethical practices. It is important to make these advertising
giants as aware of their wrong action and that the people are aware of them. The action of the
company will threaten these companies, that the organization can take some action to resist their
behavior. Therefore, it is an ethical and just action of the organization.

Business Ethics 7
References
Counts, R. W., Pitre, J. P., & Sullivan, C. (2018). How the Students Use Ethical Theories to
Name Their “Most Ethical” Person Awards. Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, 14(1),
1-5.
Eccles, R. G., Perkins, K. M., & Serafeim, G. (2012). How to become a sustainable
company. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(4), 43.
Ferauge, P., (2012). A Conceptual Framework of Corporate Social Responsibility and
Innovation. Global Journal of Business Research 6(5), pp. 85-96.
Goetghebeur, M. M., Wagner, M., Bond, K., & Hofmann, B. (2015). Analysis Of Ethical
Theories And Principles Embedded In Holistic Mcda: A Primer To Ethics-Based Appraisal Of
Value In Healthcare. Value in Health, 18(3), A101.
Holyoak, K. J., & Powell, D. (2016). Deontological coherence: A framework for commonsense
moral reasoning. Psychological bulletin, 142(11), 1179.
Lucas, K., Van Wee, B., & Maat, K. (2016). A method to evaluate equitable accessibility:
combining ethical theories and accessibility-based approaches. Transportation, 43(3), 473-490.
Russon, M. (2018). Unilever threatens to pull ads from Facebook and Google. BBC News.
Retrieved 29 March 19, 2018 from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43032241
Salloch, S., Wäscher, S., Vollmann, J., & Schildmann, J. (2015). The normative background of
empirical-ethical research: first steps towards a transparent and reasoned approach in the
selection of an ethical theory. BMC medical ethics, 16(1), 20.

Business Ethics 8
Thornton, S. M., Pan, S., Erlien, S. M., & Gerdes, J. C. (2017). Incorporating Ethical
Considerations Into Automated Vehicle Control. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent
Transportation Systems, 18(6), 1429-1439.
Uhlmann, E. L., Pizarro, D. A., & Diermeier, D. (2015). A person-centered approach to moral
judgment. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 72-81.
Winkler, T., & Duminy, J. (2016). Planning to change the world? Questioning the normative
ethics of planning theories. Planning Theory, 15(2), 111-129.
Yücel, R., Elibol, H., & Dağdelen, O. (2009). Globalization and international marketing ethics
problems. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, 26(1), 93-104.