Notre Dame Professor Robert Audi opened his recent address to Drucker students and faculty by saying that his intent was to “raise consciousness” on ways human images are presented and undermined in product marketing. In his presentation entitled: “The Marketing of Human Images as a Challenge to Ethical Leadership,” Professor Audi illustrated specific problem areas in the use of human images in marketing and discussed a list of ground-level principles (seven from W.D. Ross) as responsibility-challenges for ethical business leaders.
“The human image can be an influential role model,” said Audi, who categorically identified four key problem areas of unethical use of the human image in marketing including: 1) the representation of women in sexy or tasteless roles for product promotion--saying women, more often than men, are portrayed in this manner; 2) the promotion of healthcare products that suggest use of a medication as a normal part of life-- such as sleeping pills and pharmaceutical ads that target and deceive the sick or elderly; 3) images in product marketing of environmental use, such as using SUVs as a symbol of power or images that signify what it means to have an off-range vehicle, and 4) Communicative images with dialogues that either stereotype or selectively present facts.
In citing challenges for ethical business leaders, Audi covered 9 principles of responsibility-challenges for business leaders to practice including: 1) Justice--preventing and rectifying injustices; 2) Non-injury—the obligation to avoid hurting others, 3) Fidelity—the obligation to keep promises and not lie; 4) Reparation—the responsibility to make amends for wrong-doing; 5) Beneficence—the act of contributing to the virtue, knowledge or pleasure of others; 6) Self-improvement--the duty to better oneself; 7) Gratitude--the duty of showing appreciation for good deeds toward you 8) Liberty--the preservation and enhancement (Audi 2004), and 9) Respectfulness--“doing the right thing, the right way”
Audi said, “The challenge to business leaders is to market with the intention of good and not for harm.” In responding to the question of ethical marketing being able to sustain as “good business” in the “long run”, Audi said, “Good ethics in marketing might require that we make less money. We must try to have an influence to oppose the trends,” he said. “We can each make the case for ethical marketing--just ask yourself, what kind of person do you want to be when it comes to your image and how others think of you.”
In line with Drucker’s teachings relative to treating the customer as a “stakeholder,” Audi summed up his talk by reminding students, “We must weigh the opinions of others.” “The notion of the customer being a stakeholder is fluid,” he said. “A stakeholder is anyone who can be affected— any group of people who should be taken into consideration by the company…they are constituents of the business.”
