Business Ethics Issues - Essay Example

Business Ethics Introduction This paper aims to look into the relationship between the marketing of fast food by the food industry and the negative effects on health of the youth and children of today. Towards the end it will go over what is being done in order to overcome this rising problem. This will also look into how these are unethical and will give ethical perspectives and apply is to the problem at hand. The Fast-Food Argument Fast-food is a category of food which has very high intake of calories and is the reason why American children are becoming fatter. (Nestle, M., 2006) This food is extremely harmful to the health of youngsters and children as it has very high levels of fat, oil, sugar and salt. The amount of fast food advertising the children are exposed to everyday affects their diet to a great extent. This issue is very pressing as recently the world has witnessed the effects of fast food consumption on their health. In order to calculate the effects of fast-food on the health of people, 3301 black and white adults were interviewed. They were asked to give information about their diets, physical bodily activity and other life style factors. The results showed that those who had fast-food more than twice a week were more likely to gain an extra 10 pounds and has two times greater increase in insulin resistance. (Garner, 2005) The amount of youngsters in the United States who are obese, have type 2 diabetes, and are at the risk of obesity is pressing. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Overweight and obese adults suffer from type 2 diabetes and this is usually linked to other illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. (Diabetes in children increasing with fast food lifestyle, 2002) A new study by University of California Los Angeles researchers found that advanced heart failure patients with diabetes who are treated with insulin have a death rate four times higher than when treated with oral medications. (Gardner, 2005) In 1960's the number of obese children was approximately 5 percent and in 2002 it increased to 16 percent. This means that the number has tripled in the past forty years. The statistics show how serious a matter this is and why this should be a nationwide concern. 9 million children from the United States are obese and what is worse is that another 15 percent of the children are at risk. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Another very shocking statistic is $100 billion is spent on health-care costs every year. (Gardner, 2005) According to Schlosser, among toddlers in the United States, 21 percent which makes up roughly one-fifth of all the American toddlers, are eating French-fries every day. (Tablac, 2003) The present diet of the children is extremely high in calories, fat, and sugar and is not healthy at the same time. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Fast food is often called unsafe food because of richness in salt and sugar. (Thimphu, 2007) The effects of this unhealthy diet also include diseases later in life including heart failures, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis. It is now the responsibility of parents, health officials, governments and businesses to realize the magnitude of this problem. They should do something about it so that the children will have a safe healthy future. The diet of these children should change. They should have more intakes of vitamins, fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products. (McGinnis et al., 2006) According to Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number one health problem in the United States is not SARS. It is obesity that is becoming the number one health problem. (Ruskin, 2003) The Role of Marketing Now the question is how does this work How is marketing of fast food so persuasive that it changes the way people eat. These people include the growing population of both the developed and the developing countries. The marketing of fast food includes its four P's: Price, Promotion, Product, and Placement. Mediums like magazines, television, radio, restaurant outlets and billboards etc further become sources of information. This affects the children, their families, peers and neighborhood who will further become a source of information for the children. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Everywhere the children go, they will constantly be exposed to fast food, and as a result they will find ways to negotiate and obtain whatever is attracting them. This will slowly change their diets accordingly. Consequently, this will lead to negative effects on present or on future health of these children. Therefore the marketing of food to children accomplishes what they intended to achieve in the first place that is high sales and profits. (Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, 2006) According to another source, everyday, children watch 58 television commercials and out of these, half are for food. According to Centre for Science in the Public Interest, much of that advertising is for high-calorie or low-nutrition foods. This makes the parent's effort in improving the health of their children useless. (Guidelines for Marketing Food to Kids Proposed, 2005) The recent methods of marketing methods are now more intense and pervasive than ever. (Nestle, 2006) Another method that fast-food restaurants use to market their products is by using product placement. These methods have been successfully tried and tested on adults. What they do is that they place their products within films and television programs produced for children. This unconsciously builds a desire for that product in the heart of these children. ('junk ads' can damage our kids, 2008) These ads are placed in music, movies games, toys and everywhere one can imagine. Internet is also used by different companies to teach the children how to recognize their brand logos. And when these children go to super markets, they force their children into buying those products. (Nestle, 2006) The value of sales of fast-food in United States is approximately $900 billion per year. The amount that goes into advertising of this is roughly $11 billion per year. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Television ads are the most effective mean of advertising as they have the highest persuasion effect on the audience. A huge amount of money is put into television advertisements. McDonald's spend over $2 billion annually on advertising. The Golden Arches (The McDonalds Logo) are now more recognized than the Christian Cross. (The Issues: Advertising, 2008) Now you can only begin to imagine the amount of influence fast food restraints like McDonalds have on the general public as a whole. And this is not only in the United States of America, McDonalds is known world wide. McDonalds uses collectable toys, television adverts, and promotional schemes in schools to bombard their main target group that is children. Many parents make an objection strongly to the influence this has over their own children. (The Issues: Advertising, 2008) This is because they realize the effects of this influence on their children. They know that once their children are influenced by these methods, it will become very harmful for them in their future. However, recently a lot of policies have been put forward by different authorities to embark on this problem. Public opinion polls were carried out and they showed substantial support to introduce regulations of food marketing aimed at the children. Science and public agree on this issue so there will not be a better time to deal with this problem than now. (Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, 2006) In order to change the diets of these children, different measures must be carried out. This is a challenge as the process will be very slow. Marketing fast food is very unethical because this is one of the reason the growing population has changed their diets. Restrictions and bans must be strictly imposed by the government. Children and their parents must be made aware by different organizations working towards the betterment of the society. (McGinnis et al., 2006) The companies producing fast-food should also come up with food that is equally tasty, cheap and convenient as fast food. This will not only benefit the society by also the company as people are now become aware of the problem and are becoming more and more diet conscious. The World Health Organization put a few points forward that would serve this problem. According to the participants, the commercial production of fast food and beverages should be reduced and cross border television advertising should be avoided. (Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, 2006) In the United States, in 2004, a committee called, The Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth, was established which looked into this matter. This was because of the rising concern of the effect of marketing and their effects on the youngsters' health. A lot of other countries along with the United States have made policies to cut down on the amount of fast food and beverages advertised on various mediums. Bans and restrictions are put on these companies which limits the amount of advertising. According to a case study carried out by Hastings and Colleagues in 2003, food advertising greatly affects children's preferences and consumption. This was reported by the Foods Standards Agency in the United Kingdom. (McGinnis et al., 2006) Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases which include cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, cancers and other obesity related disease were responsible for 60 percent of the total deaths in the world in 2005. In response to these statistics, a forum was organized by the World Health Organization in 2006 which aimed at discussing different aspects of marketing of food and other beverages to children. The effects on the diets and health of the marketing of fast food on the children were also taken into consideration by different health officials and a global strategy for a healthy diet was also developed. World Health Organization asked governments, private industry, and consumer groups in May 2004 to take action against unethical promotion of unhealthy food. Nonetheless, there is only talk and little action when it comes to this because when changes were tried to be investigated, no such concrete changes were noticed from the global aspect. (Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, 2006). Ethical Debate Marketing has both positive and negative effects on the target audience. There has been an ongoing debate on the ethical aspect of marketing of fast-food to children. This discussion is very controversial and various authorities are on constant guard to prevail over this issue. The food industry is therefore facing angry resistance from various heath institutions. Marketers should be more ethical and socially responsible when it comes to advertising intended to affect youngster's behavior because of the reasons and issues mentioned above. (Heunis, 2004) By advertising fast-food to children two ethical issues are violated. Firstly, children are targeted and secondly unhealthy products are promoted. (Centre for Management Research, 2007) The marketing of food towards children is unethical because consumers have the right to safety and choice, we as consumers expect business to be more socially responsible. We expect our needs to be met and at the same time we want what ever is best in our interest. Yet we do not see the marketers respecting this and still persuasive messages are sent out to intellectually vulnerable people knowing that this is harmful for their health. (Heunis, 2004) The children are in danger as they are susceptible and can be easily exploited. They are not able to resist and when something attractive is presented in front of them. They do not understand the complexities involved in marketing and do not realise that what is being asked from them will result in unhealthy present and chronic diseases in future. These children are also mislead into purchasing these goods. The nutritional value written on the packaging is also exaggerated which is once again an ethical issue. This is a pure form of fraud. The children are also made to think that in order to be happy they need to make that purchase. (Clay, 2000) In 1999, children under 12 are spending shocking $28 billion a year while teenagers spend $100 billion. Children also influence another $249 billion spent by their parents. (McNeal, 1999) Disney realised that its collaboration with McDonalds was wrong as it was worried about obesity therefore; it cut its ties with McDonalds in producing toys for happy meals. (Zimmerman, 2006) Conclusion The health of the growing urban population should be the highest priority for a nation. Fast-food and other beverages are high in sugar and salt content. These result in different health problems for the growing population of the world. These health problems include Obesity and Diabetes. The after effects of obesity are cancer, cardiovascular disease and many more. The number of people consuming fast food and other snacks is shocking and something must be done in order to bring this down as this means all of them will have to fact negative health effects later on in life. There are several factors that might affect the diet of the youngsters namely genetics, biology, economical, social and physical surroundings. The amount of exposure that the children and youth of today are getting to marketing of fast food is a threat to their health. Whatever the children eat in the early years becomes their diet for the rest of their lives. The main reason why fast food restaurants market their products is to increase sales and earn profits. They exploit the minds of young children in order to do this. These children cannot differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. Therefore marketing fast-food to children and marketing unhealthy products is very unethical. In my opinion, it is more important to educate the children in schools and by their parents. At the same time, regulations and bans should be put upon the ones responsible for production of unhealthy food. The youngsters need to be told the effects of having such a diet so that they can avoid it and live a healthier life. Fast-food restaurants should come up with food that is equally cheap, efficient, accessible and appealing as this will not only benefit them but also the society as a whole. (Zimmerman, 2006) This is not an individual problem. It is a problem for the society as a whole and must be tackled accordingly and it calls for global governance. More organizations like the World Health Organizations should come up and suggest various policies that can be adopted by countries so that the problem of negative health effects of advertising of fast food products on children can be tackled. These policies can be regulating and fining excessive persuasive food advertisements. Non Governmental officers should also make it a point to make the public more aware in general. Works Cited 1. Centre for management research (2007) Marketing communications. Available from [Accessed 22 April 2008] 2. Clay, R. (2000) Advertising to children: Is it ethical From American Psychological Association. Available from [Accessed 22 April 2008] 3. Food Navigator (2002) Diabetes in children increasing with fast food lifestyle. Available from [Accessed 22 April 2008] 4. Garner, A. (2005) Fast Food Linked to Obesity, Insulin Problems. Available from [Accessed 22 April 2008] 5. Heunis, A. (2004) Marketing to Children: Crying Wolf. Available from [Accessed 22 April 2008] 6. McGinnis, J. et al. (2006) Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity. National Academies Press. 7. McNeal, J. (1999) The Kids Market: Myths and Realities. Paramount Market Publishing. 8. Nestle, M. (2006) Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity - A Matter of Policy. 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