Unethical Issues Of Coca-Col Ethics Of Marketing Ethics

822 Words4 Pages
Introduction Marketing ethics is a subset of business ethics, used as standards in the judgment of morally correct or incorrect marketing activities (Smith & Murphy, 2012). Endeavoring to huge business profits, unethical marketing may exist. The importance of firms’ marketing campaigns on ethical standards should not be ignored. The first part of essay is the introduction of unethical problems of Coca-Cola’s marketing activities, following with discussions and suggestions and the last part is the conclusion. Coca-Cola Company is a successful brand of soft drinks. Despite having fruitful beverage sales, the company was accused of its unethical marketing activities. Coca-Cola’s anti-obesity advertisement made false claims by saying Diet Coke is a treatment for obesity (Gary, 2015). The company’s deceptive packaging by labelling drinks as ‘diet’ misled consumers. In addition, some products of Coca-Cola could be poisonous and pose a health risk (Paul & Kieron, 2017). Based on American Marketing Association(AMA) code of ethics, these marketing issues breach ethical values of responsibility, honesty and transparency. Discussion Responsibility From the aspect of responsibility, Coca-Cola neglected to take up the consequences of marketing decisions and strategies. Its failure of making valid claims in advertising revealed its violation of marketing ethics. The company announced the anti-obesity campaign in a news release in 2013, titled ‘Coca-Cola Announces Global Commitments