Abstract
This article talks about ethics and social responsibility in advertisement. It focuses on the approach that many organizations are using by of selling their products through sex and by degrading the women all over the world. The brand that has been selected is Axe. It will start off by discussing the issue and as we move on, it will give the ethical implications and towards the end, it will give a few recommendations to the managers of Axe of what they should do.
Introduction
Marketers have a responsibility that comes with their job. They must be conscientious by being ethical in whatever they do (Kotler, P. & Gray Armstrong, 2008). They need to know that they have the power to influence people and hence this power should not be misused. In this paper, I will talk about ethics and social responsibility in marketing with respect to a chosen product.
The product that I have chosen for this paper is Axe Body Spray. The reason why I have chosen this product is because of its positioning in the market. It has positioned itself as a brand that would make you seem irresistible for the opposite sex (Hamm, S., 2007). The reason why I have chosen this brand specifically is because it spoils the audience through its sex loaded advertisements. Each and every campaign portrays women as merely objects that get attracted to the opposite sex because of the deodorant he is wearing. In my opinion, such advertisement campaigns spoil the audience and also portray women as nothing more than objects of desire.
Description or product or service
Axe is a leading brand for personal care for men. The product that I will be focusing on is Axe Body Spray which is its most running product. This brand was launched in France in 1983. It was introduced in the United States of America in 2002. This brand was an instant hit with the youth market, persuading men that clean-smelling bodies and armpits are more likely to make them more appealing (Howard, T., 2005). The parent company of this brand is Unilever which is a British and Dutch based company which produces a wide range of everyday use products for consumers all over the world. Axe is the leading brand in personal care for men all over the world. It was successful in Europe and then it was introduced worldwide. It also gained success in developing nations such as India and Middle East as well.
Worldwide, Axe has positioned itself as a body spray which can get the attention of the opposite sex and this is portrayed in a sexual manner. Most advertisements display women as objects of sexual desire. This, I believe, is an insult to women all over the world. These advertisements also tend to corrupt the minds of its users.
Ethical implications
As mention above, Axe has position itself as a brand which can sexually attract women if one uses it. It claims to “give guys the edge in the mating game” (PR News Wire, 2008). The advertisement campaign is sex loaded which corrupts those who view the ads. These ads degrade women and are offensive for most people. For example, there is an advertisement for a body spray called Dark Temptation in which the man using the products turns into a chocolate man (literally). In the advertisement, the women are biting his bum, licking his neck, and clawing at windows to get to him. The other advertisements feature women in vulgar attires and these women cannot resist a man who is using Axe products. Such advertisements degrade women and make people believe that all women have an inner animal which is just waiting to get out. Consumers all over the world have protested against Axe for these reasons (Petition Online, 2007).
Axe has had many problems in the past as people have noticed the extent to which they use sex to sell their brand. People have noticed how Unilever has different values for different brands. For instance, for Dove, they promote real beauty and talk about accepting women for who they are naturally. Its advertisement campaign talks about how it is wrong to view women as mere objects of desire because of their fake beauty. On the other hand Axe, which is also their brand uses women and portrays them as nothing more than sexual beings.
Managerial advice for changes
The way these products are positioned need to be changed because according to one source the advertisements can offend and entertain in equal measure (McManis, S., & Sacramento Bee, 2007). The target market may find the advertisements entertaining and sexually arousing. However, the majority of the people get offended because of the way they flood different mediums with rated material that humiliates women. The managers need to realize that such a selling strategy spoils the brands image in the market in the long run. Companies are becoming more and more socially responsible in whatever they do. The reason behind this is that they realize the benefits that come along with such a strategy. Axe should also realize that a different strategy which is more socially responsible should be adopted so that it can improve its image in the market. A more acceptable strategy would be using another emotion such as humor in its advertisement campaign in future.
However, it is a fact that the position of a brand cannot be changed very easily. Therefore Axe has to be patient as the transition towards a more socially responsible and ethical ad campaign will be slow. It cannot change its image by changing its advertisements. It will have to change how people perceive the product and hence this process is more complicated than it seems.
Should the product remain on the market?
Ideally, such products must not remain in the market because the social costs of the presence of these products are much higher than the benefits that are obtained. However, since realistically speaking this is not possible, the approach of selling such products should be changed. The recommendations given above must be adopted so that lesser consumers are offended and women are not degraded.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would once again like to emphasize of the harmful effects of the way products, such as Axe, are sold in the market. These products use sex to sell their products and this spoils whoever views these advertisements. The women in the advertisements are also degraded because of the way they are portrayed. There is no question that these advertisements are ethically wrong and hence something must be done about them.
References
- Hamm, S. (2007) Children of the Web.
- Howard, T. (2005) A nice-smelling man is good to find.
- Kotler, P., & Gray Armstrong (2008) Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall.
- McManis, S., & Sacramento Bee (2007) Body spray ads amuse, but do they offend, too?
- Petition Online (2007) Stop the sexist and degrading advertisements by Axe.
- PR News Wire (2008) Axe Hair.
- Unilever (2009) Introduction to Unilever. Web.