The companies should advertise a product ethically and legally, so that accurate and true information is delivered to the customers. it is because advertisement is a vital part of the business (Neelamalar, 2009). There are advertisements that are unethical yet legal. The advertisements that I find unethical but legal are the advertisement of “Vodafone Essar”, which claims that “Wherever you go our network follows”. In this case the product is exaggerated by making false claims in the marketing and advertisement of product on television channels. The channels on which the Vodafone’s advertisement is on aired include Star Plus, Sony and Star Utsav, all are Indian television channels.
Another advertisement that I find unethical but legal is of “Cadbury BournVita”, which is also on aired on television channels such as pogo, cartoon network etc in order to create awareness of product among children. In this advertisement unverified claims are used, which are unethical. The advertisement of this product tells that there are several vitamins in the product that help in the development of the child and makes his/her bones strong. But, there is no way to verify these claims.
The manufacturers, retailers and the distributors and any person, who is involved in the product distribution chain is legally liable for the product that has caused injury to the buyer. The liability of the company ends when it has delivered the right information of the product to its potential customers, and has not used deceptive descriptions in the advertisements. The liability of the company, however, also ends when the customer is satisfied with the product. The responsibility of the consumer begins when he finds that the products features do not match with those mentioned in the advertisement.
The customer can file a suit against the company, and claim for the damages that are caused due to utilization of the product.
Moreover, there are many companies that are causing damages to the environment; the top firms of the world are contributing about 2.2 tons of the environmental damage (Jowit, 2010). In The article “Mining boss found liable for company's environment damage”, Shipo Kings describe that the company Blue Platinum-a clay-mining company that is based in Tzaneen in Limpopo, and its director is found responsible for damaging the environment and violating the environment protection laws (Kings, 2014). The company has paved the way to the land pollution by ejecting hazardous chemicals on land. The company should comply with the environmental rules and regulations in order to reduce the devastating effects that are caused by it, and to ensure environmental protection.
References
Neelamalar, M. (2009). Media Law and Ethics. PHI Learning Private Limited, New Delhi
Kings, Shipo (2014). Mining boss found liable for company's environment damage. Mail Guardian, Retrieved from:
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-02-04-director-found-liable-for-companys-environment-damage
Jowit, Juliette. (2010). World's top firms cause $2.2tn of environmental damage, report estimates. The Guardian. Retrieved from:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage
