Ethics in Marketing

Persons with mental disabilities argued that the advertisement had the impact of further distressing, cause depression and suicide among people with mental illness. This analysis of the advertisement appears to disclose and prove the level of unethical practice with which McDonalds sought to market their products to the general consumers.

In quick rejoinder, in defining itself from the massive and overwhelming public dissatisfaction with the Big Mac advertisement, McDonalds Food Company clarified that even though the advertisement appeared as its marketing strategy, the company had not approved the ad as befitting for the marketing of its products (Britney, 2013). In support and defense of McDonalds Food Company, Pam Hanlin, the president of the Arnold MPG firm that was responsible for the production and release of the advertisement declared that there was no formal approval of the advert by McDonalds. Pam Hanlin also apologized to the public and anyone offended by the advert and even the McDonalds Company for the pain and loss caused by the Big Mac advertisement (Britney, 2013).

From Holley’s argument about the amount of information that a business institution should share with the public or buyers, the Big Mac advertisement by McDonalds Company was very unethical. In the advertisement, the company seemed to have hidden a lot of information unknown to any potential customer. The ad was extremely ambiguous in message making it very hard for any potential customer whether literate or illiterate. The Big Mac advertisement contained mixed message and signals with unexplained to the potential consumer.

Exploitation seeks to guide activities devoid of the authority or awareness of the target. To emphasize on David Holley’s argument, it is fundamental to understand that a standard defense for any free market system demands that everyone gets what he or she wants. To achieve this, people take the responsibility of freely taking or buying what they want. Deceitful practices in a free market such as the one described in the Big Mac ad obviously challenges this defense. In fact, scarcity of information on part of one of the participants in the free market is likely to interfere with the efficacy of the free market to deliver good products or services to the consumers.

Salespersons have essential roles to play in serving the organization and the society. The salesperson is responsible for probing and finding results to problems that must be addressed to satisfy the demands of his or her customers. When serving the organization, they must diagnose the competitive forces and determine their impact on the product’s share. For the purposes of this particular Big Mac ad, salesperson plays the role of a change agent in the market. The salesperson introduces new product ideas and works towards influencing the lifestyle and consumption patterns by ensuring that the products and product information is available to the consumer. Some of customers demand that a salesperson provides information regarding competition, product, and innovative developments in the product areas among other responsibilities. With regard to judgment on whether the ad met mutual benefit rule or not, it is evident that the Big Mac advert ran only for a year and a half. Obviously, this is not enough time for consumers to have all the information they need concerning a given product.