Business Ethics and Fast Foods - Assignment Example

Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: ABSTRACT Marketing of fast foods has risen in the United States of America within the last decade dramatically. The consumption of junk food has led to unprecedented public health concern such as obese and overweight population. This is because of change in business ethics of food industries. They have concentrated on advertising their products to children in a manager that is ethically wrong. The influence is pronounced from the effect it has shown from research that more young persons consume more of unhealthy food than healthy food. Children have high access to this fast food items within their vicinity. Parents, communities, professionals and government have raised concern on long term health and disease risks. Hence it has become a moral duty to all concerned parties to change the scenario. Hence this paper focuses on how the recent events have shaped the marketing of junk food and where it is headed. BUSINESS ETHICS & FAST FOODS Business ethics is defined as behavior that is morally considered right or wrong in the business world. Business owners, entrepreneurs and executives are required to exercise high sense of honest and fairness in value and conduct. A couple of business professionals face dilemma in deciding between a moral and ethical decision. They have to consider between the merits and demerits of such decisions. The decisions have far much effect depending on who makes the decision. The decisions made will depend whether the owners want fairness or profit and legal nature of it. The moral values are usually determined by the socio-cultural or religious environment in which the business operates (Business dictionary 2008). In America success is emphasized such that business fraternity is in constant competition of having influence through position and financial might. This may not likely be gained without compromising the moral ethics. Decisions made by owners have profound impact on the society than mangers for instance it use of poor quality of raw materials, misappropriation of funds and laying off workers (Business dictionary 2008). More so employees of multinationals face complex issues because of system incentives that may force certain staff to use unethical principles such as sales professionals offering bribes, rigid control of costs leading to use of raw materials of low quality or cutting on labor costs. Some multinationals could force employees to act wrongly on behalf of the company in which the employee is subjected to dilemma of maintaining his/her moral values or lose job. Owners of firms have great power over the moral principles by which the company can operate since employees follow what the owner does. So if the owners establish good moral standards and practices them it is possible to have working environment that reflects the same (Business dictionary 2008; Thompson 2000). Experts in business affairs as well as ethicists agree that if business statements are formulated to guide the organization on matters of values and ethics they can influence the moral behavior of the firm. This can be achieved through continuous update of organization plans and objectives. These should be made in such a way that they are at par with the basic standards. Standard operating procedures of the firm and the measurements geared towards performance should also form part of the systems that promote ethical behavior. It is of paramount importance that the statements of the company, its strategies and operational plans are in line with its values. Since written documents are not substantial enough they should be backed by action championed by the owner and thereby easily imitated by its workers, clients and competitors (Business dictionary 2008; Chryssides 1996). Linzi (2005) in his commentary illustrate that consumers have fallen victim of unethical practices by multinational companies. This is because of consumers’ unawareness of products they purchase. He describes that for proper ethical standards to be upheld in future student of management should be taught the basic foundation of business ethics. This should be considered on the aspects of personal behavior affecting an organization. This should be the concern of mangers to uphold corporate social responsibility. There should be a balanced leverage on the ethical issues such that it is able to articulate both wrong and good things. For instance there should be checks and balances where profit maximization, growth and incentives exist (Ritzer 2002) Lava (2005) points at how firms have not been able to take consideration of the environment due to unethical practices. This is an ecological problem that will have negative impact on the livelihood of living things. It is well known that the desire to own wealth and accumulate more has resulted to scramble of limited resources. This is evident by the dwindling farm produce as a result of soil erosion and poisoning of soil chemically, decrease in fish stocks and degradation of aquatic and terrestrial environment. This is accelerated by the population explosion that is increasing at an alarming rate. Thus the human beings have moral duty to protect the environment since they are the one who impact the environment immensely. In response to this Lava (2005) suggests the moral aspect that will require change in the inner attitudes and perception of the society by advocating for simple lifestyle which does not demand more resources, more clothes, big family and unhealthy food. If inner attitudes are not changed it may be difficult to preserve the environment and maintain nature as a whole. This situation is echoed by Klemper (2005) who says that social responsibility is an ambiguous concept because capitalism has conquered socialism such that in cases where the government is grappling with financial constraints and have a multinational firm that does not uphold ethical standards it is possible for the firm to pollute the environment and thereby result to blame game. Hence who will be responsible for pollution? Rizter (2004) brings a new concept of ‘globalization of nothing’ referring to the emergence of a consumption culture where there is an increased movement of commodities that have no nutritional value to the society. The actual nutritious and valuable food items have been avoided leading to an increased consumption of junk food. Junk food is primarily promoted by food industries that have confectionary, sweetened cereals and soft drinks advertised globally. This influences the audiences’ food choices as opposed to natural food items. However, these foods are known to have high fat content, sugar value and salt levels. According to Rizter (2004) it is the emergence of such product that he refers them as ‘nothingness’ Fast food marketing has characterized American culture for more than a decade now due to the vibrant food industry. The food industry has marketed junk food aggressively with a great emphasis targeting young children. Young children have had to consume more of this junk food as a result of exposure to the advertisement (Media network 2008). In this view we define marketing as activity engaged by the company to promote the exchange of goods or services between the clients and itself. Marketing to children have been the greatest concern of marketers in the United States and Canada (Story & French 2004). Parents are supposed to be first teachers of their children in educating them about the best food choices because young children cannot differentiate between commercial advertisements from real television programs. Since most of the families have television sets it is becoming increasingly the media channel by which food industry use to promote their products. In order to understand the moral aspect of this marketing adventure, confirmed reports indicate that a healthy society is characterized by having responsible citizens and not consumers. In this case there has been an obsession of materialism in the minds of the children whose self image and values have been defined by their eating habits (Media network 2008). Food companies have continued to bombarding living rooms with advertisement of their food products. They do this because the industry accounts for 12.5 percent of the United States economy, it is mandatory that consumers will buy food now and then and that the industries want to promote their brands of which 80% of food items sold are branded. Marketing to children is influenced by fact that companies would like to build a strong relationship with children from a young age as well as rally loyal customer base. The experiences have shown that children preference to brands and parents liking of the products have influenced more business companies to advertise the products more to children (Story & French 2004). Hence we get a scenario where the 50 percent of the United States children ask their parents to buy such food items to them on the first visit to the supermarket or stores. Specifically, children ask their parents to buy them these food items as follows; breakfast cereals constitute 47 percent, beverages and snacks at 30 % and toys at 21%. Television advertisement affects greatly children depending on their age and developmental stage. For instance children less than eight years of age are view all commercial ads and television programs as same. Children aged between eight and ten years are able to understand the difference but cannot act on them while those aged 11 to 12 years can be able to absorb concrete and abstract ideas. The teenagers may be influenced by their emotional development and changes in their identity, sexuality and sense of belonging (Story & French 2004). Food industries have used several strategies to market their products and I would like to point out a few of them. First television is the most preferred channel by which food adverts are placed they account to 95% of budgets in the food industry where children between the age of 2 and 19 have 2 to 4 hours of viewing daily. This accounts to about 40,000 adverts per year. In this adverts 50% target children where 44% promote fat and sweet food items and 11% promote restaurants selling fast foods. This is equivalent to statistics of an international research conducted in selected European countries. The research indicated that 40% of all adverts in the television were promoting fast foods that had high concentration of fat, sugar and salt with over 50% content respectively (Story & French 2004; Schlosser 2002). Secondly food industry have devised a method of selling their products to schools where they argue that it is necessary for them to generate direct sales, direct advertisement ,indirect ads and do market research. The trend has gained support from school administration where the companies have signed contracts with schools allowing them to sale and advertise their product. It is reported that 77 percent of the schools have contracts with these companies and at least 58% of elementary schools have access to fast foods within the school precincts. Similar statistics show about 83% of middle schools and 95% of high schools readily get this junk food (Story & French 2004). Third the fast food marketers use product placement where they incorporate brands in movies in exchange of money and promotional; support. They use the either as a backdrop, prop or used in the script. This was first used in 1982 with recorded impact. Some corporations like Burger King and Nickelodeon use kids club as marketing strategy in which they establish personal contacts with the children and communicate to them often through cards and other literature. Online communication is on the rise among children in families with home connection. The marketers have taken advantage of these and integrated their products on the web. Some have website dedicated for this purpose alone. It is estimated that between 1998 and 2001 young children access to the internet has risen by 25% for ages between 10 and 17 years (Story & French 2004). Marketers have also used branded toys and products to establish their dominance on children’s preference of their products such that they urge young consumers to buy food items that are branded in their name. Lastly food industries have used cross selling as well as tie-ins to attract youth. This they do by partnering with celebrities and popular entertainment segments such as Burger King and Nickelodeon, McDonald and Fox Kids. Other emerging marketing channels include use of premiums, sweepstakes and digital media (Jonathan 2007). These marketing strategies have influenced a great deal the food choices of children. Research indicates that the more children exposed to food ads are more likely to choose those items than those that are not exposed. Hence children are able to influence their parents to buy the products. The federal government has duty to protect children from the promotion of junk food. However legal framework is still wanting. For instance the federal committee commission is inn charge of ensuring public interest is guaranteed from the broadcasters while the federal trade commission regulates unfair and deceptive adverts to children. However, the law is silent on how the ads directed to children should be done. Similarly most advertising industry regulates itself through the children advertising review unit. It is composed mainly of food industries which makes it questionable if it can control itself against moral obligation of avoiding to market their products to children (Story & French 2004). Fast foods consumption has led to obese in children. Research by Spiegel (2006) indicates that about 30% of children aged 11 to 15 years are overweight and girls alone have whooping 45% in United Kingdom. Several governments worldwide have taken considerable strides in to regulate the consumption of fast foods. For instance Sweden and Quebec has banned ads directed to children under age of 13. Sweden is also advocating European Union members to adopt the same. In the UK the government is planning legislation to control the ads but controversy also lies in who is responsible. Some argue that parents are responsible while others say it is the government. Although certain food companies recently have responded to parents concern on children ads from food industries by withdrawing the ads it is still evident that more children are flocking to the fast restaurants selling junk food e.g. Burger King (Melaleuca 2007). The government has great moral duty to advocate for healthy food through legislation and education. Similarly parents and communities have the duty to ensure that children have healthy diet. For instance in the United States, the dietary intake is poor whereby junk food contributes 50% of calories in children. It has given rise to obese and overweight epidemic that has become public health problem. Currently 15% of youth are overweight and at least 60 percent of children have one cardiovascular risk factor (Story & French 2004) Scientist have a role to play in identifying the link associated with food consumption of fast foods in children while community has to control the ads and marketing to unhealthy foods in their locality. To achieve several proposals have been made to change the public opinion. Melaleuca (2007) illustrate them clearly in three categories as follows; a) changing public perception through identifying marketing strategies that undermine authority of parents and guardians; educate public on best practices to be used for marketing and companies complying with this honored; use litigation; educate and inform legislators through campaigns on the effect of obesity, unhealthy food and beverages; and reprimand food industries that advocate for junk food. b) Legislation and regulatory policies to be enacted that address issues like limiting accessibility to junk food; give subsidies to farmers to increase healthy food stocks; increase taxes to fast food items, regulate marketing through digital media; and ensure labeling of nutritional value of all food products sold. c) All stakeholders should be involved in the campaign against consumption of unhealthy food as well give incentives based on individual characteristic factors. The stakeholders to include in particular are food and beverage industries, entertainment industry, employers, insurers, parents, youth, communities, schools, policy makers, health professionals and sponsors. CONCLUSION Marketing is the exchange of goods and services between a company and its clients. It uses channels like television, internet, and print media, digital, in school, product placement, cross-selling, tie-ins, branded toys and logos. These are mainly used by fast-food industries which sell product containing high sugar, fat and salt content. These contribute more than 50% of calories absorbed in the body. It has led to increase in overweight and obese children rusting to a public health concern. Due to these it is of paramount importance that a moral duty is necessary to curb the epidemic. Parents, communities, food industries, professionals and government have a duty to limit the spread of consumption of unhealthy food and encourage healthy diet. Several proposals have been made such parents to educate children on healthy diet, government to enact laws and policies to govern marketing of fast food to children and health professionals to identify risk factors associated with consumption of fast foods. REFERENCES Business dictionary, 2008, Business ethics, Available at: http://www.answers.com/topic/business-ethics?cat=biz-fin *Chryssides G. 1996, Business Ethics Essentials, McGrawhill, London. Jonathan, 2005, Interactive marketing, May 17, Available at: http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/advertising/study_documents_new_interactiv%3D5238 Klemper, G. 2005, ‘preferential foul,’ Business Philosophy, issue 17, Available at: http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/issue17.html Lava, B. E. 2005, ‘creation stewards,’ Business Philosophy, issue 17, Available at: http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/issue17.html Linzi, J. K. 2005, ‘teaching & learning ethics,’ Business Philosophy, issue 17, Available at: http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/issue17.html Media Network, 2008, ‘young children’, Media, Available at: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/issues_kids_marketing.cfm Melaleuca, 2007, Clamp down junk food, August 13, Available at: http://allocasuarina.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-time-to-clamp-down-on-junk-food.html *Ritzer, G. (ed.) 2002, McDonaldizisation, Pine forge, London. *Rizter, G.2004, Globalization, sage, p238 *Schlosser, E. 2002, Fast food Nation, Penguin, London. Spiegel, 2006, Fast food chain, Spiegel, November 15, Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448544,00.html Story, M., & French, S. 2004, Food advertising, Available at: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/1/1/3 *Thompson, M. 2000, Teach Ethics, Pitman, London. Read More