Ethics in Advertisement of United Colors of Benetton

As the students of MME (Economics and Man hop onment studies), we have elect the topic, which involves our study program, which is the Marketing and Consumer behavior. Our topic is cerebrate on the advertisement and the practices of unify colour in of Benetton Company. Their course of commercialize seems to be say a nonher way and it has been discussed some(prenominal) generation whether their schema is honourable or not in the past.First we would like to cotton up the basics of the join colors of Benetton beau monde and then all told the classical levelheaded-hearteds of slighton reasoning theories will be draw ( functionalism, Deontology) applied on the fall in colour in of Benetton advertising system. Virtue ethics is not acquittance to be discussed as it is not a suitable border on for this case. Utilitarian and deontological accesses atomic number 18 going to serve as a conceive for understanding whether it would be wise for Benetton to change its do dging or stick to its traditional way of marketing and ignore the voice of humans opinion.The United colour in of Benetton strategyUnited alter of Benetton is an Italian community that thanks to its laughable way of advertising is dicussed all everyplace the foundation. It is one of a few companies that does not insist on representing its products in the advertisements. Instead of the product moot motives ar physical exercised presenting incompatible kinds of fond issues (eg. rasism, terrorism, kindly tabus). The Benetton United colourize campaign illustrates how modernistic advertising has been radicalized into an explicitly political forum. (Tinic, 1997) Since United Colors of Benetton has started with this advertising strategy some an(prenominal) critical re saves have occured.As a result of this negative publicity many Benetton? s adverts were banned in some(prenominal) countries. The criticized aspect is most(prenominal)ly the concomitant that Benetton i s an nerve trying to reach the usefulness and superior level of awareness among consumers. in that locationfore its polish is similar to most of an opposite(prenominal) businesses. However, Benetton? s representatives are trying to persuade the public to the highest degree their concern in prefigureing at most dicussed issues in the world and extend general awareness ab tabu these occupations. United Colors of Benetton uses shocking motives, in separate words fear court, in its adverts. venerate appeal is utilise in eg. check into smoking, bar against AIDS and drugs advertisements. Scary and catchy motives are used in the adverts to show what harmful consequences could a certain natural action cause. Some of Benetton? s adverts also use fear appeal and the problem is that in regular commercials where fear appeal is presented, possible dissolvent or pr eveningtion against the problem is presented in the message (eg. prevention against AIDS use condoms). Benetton has been trying to clapperclaw attention to actual social issues tho they never provide any other information than the companys trademark.beyond complaints about individual Benetton advertisements, there appears to be an undercurrent of unease caused by the fact that social problems have been linked to the change of designer clothing. (Tinic, 1997) Therefore our paper is going to dicuss whether the advertisements of United Colors of Benetton are ethical or not found on the theoretical framework related to object lesson reasoning. The company? s philosophy is establish on the conviction of Mr. Benetton who says that communication should no be commissioned from outside the company, but it should be conceived from within its heart.The United Colors of Benetton (UCB) emphasizes that the communication should be no daylong connected with the consumer but with the individual. By debut the universe of regard as, the brand assoils the product from the world of merchandise and man ufacturing and makes it a social cosmos of its own. By addressing an individual rather than a customer, the brand can identify its hind end on the basis not of age or income, but of a shared vision of what is important, starting from a adapt of common values. ( Luciano Benetton)First idea of Benettons company was written in the proto(prenominal) 60s because their sweaters were marketed into the many different countries with different peoples climb tones. The united come upon became a fiction pretty soon frankincense the name of Benettons company was changed to the United Colors of Benetton. One of their first add wake no racial contrarietys saying any the colors of the world was the start of the radical era of their many times arguable marketing strategy discussed all over the world. Three separate bouts of building Benettons valueAs it was mentioned above, the strategy of Benettons advertising campaign leads to many discussions and criticism and many of ads were pro hibited in several countries. Their strategy is divided into 3 main(prenominal) trolls. The round of drinks of Difference The first and oldest cps started in the 80s and was concerning to the racial, spiritual and sexual conflicts and differences. All the conflicts are found on tabus and on a difference that separates rather than unites. The Benettons plan was to commix opposites and to unite differences under a exclusive flag the Benettons logo.The ads were not so controversial. As in the following cycles/second the cycle of the reality. The cycle of reality This cycle starts in the early 90s as the service to the Gulf fight (the ad presentation the war cemetery. This ad was refused to print it by several newspapers. This kind of ads showed the reality of the manners but paradoxly the most censured campaign showing the newborn despoil (as the eruption of real life) caused the biggest scandal. Another campaigns showing the real, high drama situation were censured t oo. There are pictures of some of themThe pictures of AIDS patient, the spend and the Albanian emigrants were not taken for the ad campaign but were the agency photos used for conveying styles. They were showing the real world. The cycle of free speech and the reform to evoke it Last and the most recent cycle campaign was actually created as the answer to the second cycle. The reaction to the real life photos was often violent and not trustworthy by the critics. Benetton has been fighting for having a free speech and mature to express it by new kinds of campaigns (trying to highlight the AIDS issues, homosexuality, racism, and so forth ) Utilitarianism attackUtilitarianism is the deterrent example reasoning feeler theory, which is answering the question, what is aright and wrong in various situations. The effects and consequences determine the right or wrong action. The greatest untroubled for the greatest number may be defined as a functional approach. Pleasure and pain measurement is based on the Cost benefit analysis. The laminitis of utilitarianism was Jeremy Bentham. He was saying that ethics is much or less a numerical equation (total contentment plus amusement minus pain). The negative consequences would have a negative impact on the auberge and it would create the unhappiness.Everyone who would stick to the rule the aegis would be given as well up as predictability and certainty leading to the general happiness. For a Benettons company the happiness may be described as the total way of the companys philosophy. Their goal is not lone(prenominal) increase their profits but also the social awareness of the real life problems concerning all of us. The pain involves those who protest against the Benettons adverts. The enumerate of those who protest against the Benettons adverts is rapidly diminish and the Benettons strategy has been getting more(prenominal) and more accepted.This means that the Benefits (Happiness) outnumbers the Co sts (Pain) thus according to the Utilitarian approach of honourable reasoning the Benettons campaign is ethical. A utilitarian could condone or even prescribe an act of deception if the domineering consequences outweighed the negative consequences. (van den Belt, 2010) From the utilitarian point of view, even if Benetton? s advertisements are creation criticized, it still brings a lot of imperious results (eg. increased awareness about the brand). some(prenominal) positive and negative evaluation change the brand to be seen and perceived among consumers.Deontological approach Deontological approach as well as utilitarian approach are touch about a practical solution of a problem more than a philosphical/abstract solution that is more distinctive for virtue ethics. The core principle of both deontological and utilitarian approach is finding the right thing to do in a certain situation. On the contrary, there is a dissimilarity between these two approaches as utilitarianism i s more focused on consequences and deontological approach emphasizes side features of the actions (eg. ishonest or fraudulent behavior). In case of United Colors of Benetton , there is a question if it is correct and ethical to use social issues and catastrophical motives in their commercials. accord to questions What should I do? or What is the right thing to do? the solution from the righteous perspective would probably be extermination of controversial motives from Benetton? s advertisements. The reason why this solution would be chosen is appeasement of the situation decrease of criticizm among the consumers. The public would be satisfied ith not being unfastened to unpleasant images of Benetton? s adverts. On the other hand, from the business perspective, Benetton would lose its unique way of increasing awareness both about the social issues as well as about the brand. Based on deontological approach Benetton should change its strategy and use less controversial motives. The company should not only think about instrumental values but should also take into cover tha fact that human beings have moral dignity and possess intrinsic value (van den Belt, 2010).Due to this reason the company should not only strive for the profit and increased awareness. Choice of less controversial motives or change of advertising strategy could be one of the solutions. It is exclusively the good will of the acting person that renders his action morally appropriate, where one should act out of duty, not out of prudence. (van den Belt, 2010) clean-living issue related to this citation are in case of Benetton as follows ? never injure anyone with your advert messages? but it does not necessarily exclude the fact that ?Benetton? s commercials should always please everyone?. The way Benetton does its advertisements is unique in the market. There have already been many trials of other companies to copy this strategy but they were never successful. Advertising strategy of Ben etton is so distinct from others that losing such a competitive advantage in the market could cause harmful consequences for the company. That does not mean that opinions of the consumers should be ignored. The voice of public should unimpeachably be taken into consideration.