Alcoholic Drinks Industry - Report Example

Industry Responsibility Repot Alcoholic Drinks Industry Alcoholic Drinks Industry Introduction Ethics de a system of moral practices based on principles that determine right or wrong. It refers to the implications that actions or motives may have on a party. It advocates upholding just practices and actions. As applied in business, ethics is a study of rightful and unjust practices, policies, or behavior that may contravene proper practices. Ethical issues are applicable in diverse business areas including accounting, finance and marketing. Main concerns or issues of ethics in business relate to four areas. It applies to business and consumer relations, employer and employee relations, nature, and value of operations, as well as financial markets practices. Ethical Concerns in the Alcoholic Drinks Industry In the contemporary business environment, there is a wide increase in marketing campaigns. The alcoholic drinks industry uses marketing as key among the business strategies to promote sales and improve market dominance. Several alcoholic companies advertise their brands through campaigns that target the young generations and college students. That raises serious ethical concerns in the industry. The first ethical concern is misleading adverts or marketing strategies in the alcoholic drinks industry. Second, there is an insurgence of adverts targeting youths and underage individuals in the alcoholic drinks industry. Understandably, that presents an ethical concern. Third, the emergence of inappropriate packaging of alcohol and alcoholic drinks that tends to mislead consumers presents an ethical concern in the industry. a) Misleading adverts or marketing strategies Regardless of their locations or media used, alcoholic drinks adverts should not targets underage population. Similarly, adverts should not have promotions that encourage young consumers to engage in drinking. Adverts should not target intoxicated individuals. The advert should not feature promotions targeting intoxicated individuals. Promotional activities should not focus on a group of individuals who risk because of dependency because of limited financial resources. Adverts should not target individuals who have psychological or health disorders. b) Adverts targeting the underage Numerous children start drinking when they are still under age. Research shows that such children are seven times more likely to die out of alcohol related effects or alcohol kills. In particular, car crash is the leading death cause to alcohol users due to those young people who drink and eventually drive themselves home. One out three car cash deaths is alcohol related. Many people attribute misuse of alcohol to lack of guidance from parents, peers and other environmental factors. However, both alcohol consumption and perception shows a significant correlation with alcohol advertisement. Such alcohol advertisements expose young teens to alcoholics and drinking habits, beliefs and behaviors (Kline, 2010, p.157). American markets receive massive bombardment with alcoholic drinks without putting limits of age groups to target. Consequently, children who lack proper guidance and counseling fall victims of being users of alcohol. Most beer and alcohol manufacturing companies disregard the marketing regulations and venture in to advertisement with containing youth oriented themes, attracting them into the temptation of trying the new themes out. In addition, the medium through which the companies do advertisement have audience predominantly underage. Despite the public outcry concerning the exposure of underage children into the usage of alcohol and alcoholic products, alcoholic companies still validate their practices as they mainly focus on profit driven model. Consequently, the number of underage teens consuming alcohol keeps growing at significantly high rates. Companies that adopt Edward Freeman outlook concerning stakeholder’s theory would ethically satiate concerns and demands of their stakeholders who are apprehensive while observing more socially responsible acts in their marketing operations. Furthermore, government based agencies among other watch alcohol related organizations have initiated efforts to explore means of capturing the number of underage teens who use alcohol. Despite having a good number of youths who do not partake of alcohol in the previous years, the new advertisement approaches taken by alcohol producing companies significantly increase their chances of drinking. c) Misleading Alcohol Package Labels It is unethical to use alcohol packaging as a strategy or dominant feature to encourage consumption. Packaging of alcoholic products should not link it to initiation of violent acts among consumers. Packaging of alcohol should not show sexist characters or images that promote sexual attractiveness. Packaging or advertisement of alcohol should not promote drinking as a measure of social success or celebrity (Shaw 2010, p. 233). Packaging of alcohol should not promote messages that it enhances intellectual abilities or has related health benefits. Packaging of alcohol should not encourage binge-drinking, abuse or promote driving while drunk. It should not encourage intoxication among consumers. Packaging of alcohol should not display images that attract underage consumers, below 18 years. Packaging of alcohol should not demean non-drinkers or show disrespect for individuals who chose not to drink. Alcohol labels state different information from the real contents in various instances. For example, some companies state either higher or lower content of alcohols in the labels contrary to the real content percentage in the drink. Many researches carried out using a process referred to as gas chromatography have indicated that, in most cases, ethanol concentration is always higher than the stated label content. Such misleading information can pose a huge threat to groups such as expectant women who need to take low content alcohol concentration. Expectant women required to take low alcohol or non-alcoholic drinks if mislead, are likely to subject their unborn babies at risk. It is unethical to give a false advertisement than the actual brand content. It is ethical to be honest and transparent about such drinking products to not only protect the users but also win their loyalty and trust. Industry Responsibility Alcohol is a refreshment beverage but it also poses a great challenge to human health and safety if excessively consumed. This has prompted the producers, distributor, and retail outlets of alcohol to assume responsibility of preventing the dangers by sponsoring responsible and safe drinking to adults only. Most of the industry stakeholders have resorted to the reduction of underage drinking by creating public awareness about the dangers of alcohol consumption. Producers have set out well-coordinated efforts in the investment of programs aimed at reducing underage drinking by fostering mature and responsible drinking habits to adults. Some companies exercise self-restraint in the advertisement of alcoholic beverages thereby reducing the exposure of alcohol to juveniles. Beer industries have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to create effective anti-underage drinking programs. They have set minimum drinking age of 21years. The undertake awareness creation to prevent drunk driving and encouraging parents to inform their teenagers on the dangers of alcohol. Alcohol producers and wholesalers have produced varied materials aimed at educating youth, parents, the potential servers of alcohol to young people and public in general. The programs for alcohol servers are designed to promote law enforcement prohibiting sales of alcohol to minors and intoxicated people. Industry Response Different stakeholders in the industry operate under regulations of state laws on the distribution of alcoholic drinks. Similarly, the federal government has in place measures, although markets at times ignore them. There are diverse efforts to ensure proper marketing in the alcoholic drinks industry. At both federal and states levels, there are basic legislations prohibiting false and misleading advertising of alcoholic drinks (Johns Hopkins University, 2015, p. 1). The laws outline that adverts should not target the underage. Most alcohol marketers comply with the laws by including in their advertisements a statement asserting that alcohol in not for sale to underage persons. It also implies that marketers refrain from advertising their products in the open where the likelihood of having young persons is high. The law, in its attempt to limit the sale of alcohol, outlines the effects of selling of the products to minors. The factor should mean that the marketers do not produce any alcoholic drink for the children. The marketing procedure, therefore, does not have the children as target groups. State laws focus on protecting the youth against consumption of alcohol because of its effects on their health (Horvath et al. 2009, p. 222). Various state laws in the country seek to establish control over the media in terms of advertising. It limits the media on the manner in which advertisement of alcoholic drinks is undertaken. The main reason media regulation is the popularity among citizens and its access by the underage or young population. Based on the laws, adverts should not have misleading contents on the benefits of the drinks. Salespersons should not elaborate on the importance of drinking, but instead, warn people against excessive drinking (Mueller, 2011, p. 104). Contents of the adverts do not include labels meant to lure children into buying drinks. Labels designed for alcoholic beverages in retail places have the restriction of not involving pictures of the youth, but the older persons. Stakeholders in the industry have a common understanding of the legislation against advertising alcoholic drinks to college campuses. There are different restrictions on alcohol advertising and distribution among college students. It is critical to note that there efforts to curb the distribution of alcohol in colleges in the country as restricted by state laws. The laws protect college students from irresponsible advertising by marketers in the industry. It is, therefore, easy to differentiate false advertising, distribution of alcoholic drinks to the young and misleading labels from each other. Bibliography Horvath, A., Villafranco, J., Calkins, S & American Bar Association 2009, Consumer Protection Law Developments, ABA Section of Antitrust, Law Chicago, IL. Johns Hopkins University, 2015, State Laws to Reduce the Impact of Alcohol Marketing On Youth: Current Status and Model Policies. Retrieved January 14, 2015 from http://www.camy.org/action/Legal_Resources/State%20Ad%20Laws/CAMY_State_Alcohol_Ads_Report_2012.pdf Kline, J 2010, Ethics for International Business: Decision-Making in a Global Political Economy, New York: Rutledge. Mueller, B 2011, Dynamics of International Advertising: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, New York: P. Lang. Shaw, W 2010, Cengage Advantage Books: Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases, New York: Cengage. 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