Saturday, March 10, 2012

higher class leads to less ethical choices

A recent article suggests that having a higher social status will lead to less ethical choices. the reasearchers  put people through a series of tests and determined that people find middle and lower classes are more likely to be more ethical and more caring then the people from the upper classes. for example when they were driving, the upper class would cut people off and take more risks due to their competitive nature, while middle class and lower will more so obey the rules.

what do you think of this?

Response to above the inluence

I find these commercials somewhat harmful to the anti drug message. First the commercial where the teenage girl runs into the bathroom and vomits in the toilet, it shows that she has a lack of self control and is conflicted by peer pressure. If she was raised to have more self respect for her self and be an individual she would realize she does not have to get that messed up. But at the same time sometimes going a little over the line is a good stress reliever, to feel like you have lived is better then any board game or after school activity. Second the commercial where the teen is jumping from building to building. the commercial implies that it is safer to jump from building top to building top on your way to school then do drugs. Also they say in the fine print professional stunt person do not try this. so what is the point of even advertising this commercial if the activity can seriously injure you or kill you, the police will arrest you for trespassing, or you have to be professionally trained to do it?

we really know these commercials are pertaining to marijuana and alcohol because of their abundence but do you think these ads would be more succesful if they portrayed being responsible and having self control? All teenagers want is to be accepted and be respected, what i have found is that when you show them acting reponsibly will earn them respect and acceptance they tend to be more willing to change.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Response to Look, no hands! The driverless future of driving is here

The benefit of having cars that can drive them self will greatly improve the traffic jams we currently face. hopefully someday they will design a system of vehicle transport that will feed in information and the system will adjust all cars on the road to handle different traffic situtations at different times of the day. I do think this technology should only be used for congested areas, rural driving should still be left to the individual.

Would you trust this technology?

The Lorax, saving trees and selling suv's

Dr. Susses book the Lorax will be hitting the screen and just like when the book came out it will stir up controversy. Except this time the controversy will be focused around how the partners of the film are using the books message to sell their products. According to BBC news,
       "At a school in Virginia recently, more than 100 school children sat through a reading of The Lorax, followed by a presentation from a Mazda marketing executive who urged the children to persuade their parents to test-drive a Mazda SUV, the Washington Post reported."  The Lorax is partnered up with Mazda in a series of marketing campaings to push their new fuel efficient green vehicles. The Lorax has been used for the last 40 years as a marketing tool and is losing his original message.


Do you think that the companies that use the Lorax to promote their products are hurting the image of the  Lorax?

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Response to the case of john smith

I think john should sell the names, in the end he's going to be doing more for his employees buy blurring this line then he would be able to do by being ethical. and when you really think about it what is the car company going to do with the names and numbers? Call them or e mail them, that is by far less damaging then losing everyones job. I think our scale of ethics has not yet developed itself to a point where it can accurately judge the grey areas of ethical distortion. In this case by being unethical to customers John is looking out and doing good for all of his employees.

If you were Johns employees and he said to you, "I can sell these names and we can all keep our jobs or I can be Ethical and not sell them and the company goes under", what would you tell him to do?

A worm in the Apple

       We live in an age where technology has become a standard in our lives, especially within the younger generation. One thing often overlooked is how we obtain such devices. Apples factory Foxconn is in the public eye recently for its treatment of workers. According to Forbes.com there are 235000 workers at this facility and the average wage among workers is about $1.78 per hour. They live in crowded dorm style rooms after working 10 hour shifts in silence. Also suicide nets had to be put up around the building because workers were jumping out of the building and falling to their deaths due to such conditions.

Do you think it is the worlds fault for the demand of these high tech items or do you think it is the business men in america and china for forcing these people to work like this so they can reap all the benefits? Also Should we limit the amount of money individual humans can absorb so that others may benefit from more income?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

why is Starbucks invisible in Italy?

Starbucks the world wide coffee company got its humble roots in Italy but it still does not yet have a store in Italy. The marketing man behind the empire Howard Schultz got his idea for the company by walking around the streets in Italy. Starbucks is such a large global company that their marketing plan obviously works but not in italy. He keeps saying he will eventually put one in italy but has yet to do so.  I think it is because the coffee Shops in Italy are breed from the history of the country, but Starbucks has separated from the traditional Italian design and went Global, so the Traditional coffee shops view Starbucks as a sell out.

Do you think Starbucks is a sell out? Also do you think Starbucks would have to develop a custom marketing plan for Italy?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/grounds-zero-a-starbucksfree-italy-02092012.html