Ethics In Cigarette Advertising

In studying the question of ethics in business and the complexities which can often arise, no subject is better suited for exploring these considerations than that of big tobacco and the recent banning of cigarette advertising in various countries. In India, an on-going battle with big tobacco has been raging, in an effort to “send a message” to Indians and to Indian youth that discourages smoking. However, like other governments embroiled in such a situation, the process is not clear cut. Arguments in favour of the tobacco ban are extensive and obvious. These include statistics garnered from years of smoking-related mortalities, and projection statistics. Included among these are WHO statistics citing “3 million deaths from smoking in 1990,” …show more content…
Furthermore, Tobacco companies should be able to market if they are legally allowed to sell, but the marketing is always the delicate question. The Indian marketing Bureau threw in its two cents when it conducted a survey that said in 1998 that half of Indian smokers had started smoking “to see what it was like” 24% said, “all my friends smoke,” and not one said advertising had induced them to start smoking. Of course the vested interest of this study does make it somewhat less relevant than the massive studies generated by the anti-smoking campaigner, but the smoking lobby had another criticism, that of moral policing. This issue is extremely loudly declared by the smokers lobby, and it does have some relevance. It has even been brought to the Supreme Court of Canada, which identified it as a problematic form of paternalism designed to “control the thought, behavior and belief of its citizens” (icmrindia.org, 2001). Other critics from a business standpoint have remarked that a ban would “reduce the consumer ability to distinguish between products of differing quality” and pointed out that domestic cigarette companies would be hard hit, while foreign companies would be able to continue to influence the Indian public through foreign channels, overseas sports sponsorships and foreign magazines (icmrindia.org, 2001). As described in Principles of Management, “Ethical dilemmas can arise from a variety of areas, such as: Advertising (desire to present your product or service in the best light)” (Carpenter et al., 2009) which appears to describe only part of what Indian tobacco companies would be struggling with) as well as “Sourcing of raw materials (does the company buy from a supplier who may be underpaying their people or damaging the