Carolina Pad is a maker and distributor of school supplies. The company recently hired April Whitlock as their director of brand management, for her knowledge of social media and innovative uses of the Internet. A major part of her internet strategy was a creative use of blogs and bloggers, especially mommy bloggers. Blogs are web-based journals maintained by an individual with regular entries of either commentary, descriptions, or accounts of events. Blogging became popular in the early 2000’s and has since grown immensely. Mommy bloggers are typically stay at home mothers who write about their lives and the products they use. They often disclose when they have received samples from a company to try out, and their reviews ranged from very …show more content…
Would declining the mommy blogger risk her relationships with other bloggers? Critics argue that this blurred the ethical line between what was honest opinion or helpful information and what was an advertisement paid for by companies to influence individuals buying decisions. The most ethical solution that appears, is to simply have the mommy bloggers disclose that are being paid/ sponsored by companies. However, the impact the blogs have could decrease by disclosing the fact that they are sponsored. Currently in the United States bloggers are required to disclose to the Federal Trade Commission any connection with the companies they blog about, including receiving free products from companies or if they were paid by companies. Whitlock also had an unsettling feeling that there was something dishonest with this situation, but the bloggers did not promise favorable reviews. If she were to pay the bloggers various stakeholders would be affected. The bloggers would benefit financially, and Carolina Pad would benefit with increase in exposure and sales. However, if by paying the blogger they entered into something unethical, that would go against the company’s value and mission statement. Using the virtues method, honesty, loyalty and respect from customers and employees would be negatively affected if they were to pay the bloggers. They had to decide whether this was a risk the company wanted to