Subject:
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Re: McDonald's, LEGO and Ethics
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 10 Sep 1999 00:23:10 GMT
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Viewed:
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293 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher Tracey writes:
> How far will these promotions/tie-ins go? Everywhere I look nowadays • products
> are advertising each other. You can barely watch a new movie nowadays • without
> seeing at least one product placement within it. Maybe the same is • happening to
> LEGO. I had this dream last night that the only LEGO you could buy would • be a
> 'McDonald's', an 'Exxon(or Shell?)' gas station, a 'Pizza Hut' delivery • car, a
> 'Citibank' bank, a 'Dow' Chemical Plant, and a 'Monsanto' farm kit. And • the
> truly scary part is LEGO is marketed to kids. Is the TLG helping to teach • our
> kids to be good little consumers?
>
> Any opinions.
Yeah I'd be uneasy about this. It does seem unethical.
My reasoning? We'd all agree that taking something that legitimately belongs
to them by force is wrong. But accepting something that is freely given is
OK.
But between those two extremes, where is the boundary? At what point does it
become wrong.
Brainwashing someone so they then freely give you something is I'd say
wrong.
(Though the definition of what constitutes 'brainwashing' is a bit vague.
Honest advertising is OK - the kind where you tell people about your
product, you're honest about it, and you make it clear that advertising
is what you're doing.
Then there's this. McDonalds across Lego. It's definitely advertising, but
it's masquerading as a toy. Us adults might recognise it's an advert (though
even so we'd probably be subconsciously influenced by it a bit). Kids won't.
And it's kids these are aimed at. Put McDonalds across their toys. Influence
them so they are more likely to pester their parents into going to
McDonalds.
But do it in such a way that they don't think it's advertising at all. Does
it cross
the line into being definitely morally wrong? I'm not completely sure, but
I'd say it's definitely veering towards dishonesty.
Is that the reason you're unhappy with it? You didn't really make that
clear.
Simon
http://www.SimonRobinson.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | McDonald's, LEGO and Ethics
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| I came back from vacation this week and saw the news about the McD's Drive-through promotional kit and hit an ethical dilemma. I used to be(still am?) an anti-McDonalds activist. I sat outside restaurants passing out fliers and stickers for hours (...) (25 years ago, 9-Sep-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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