Answer

Milgram’s Experiment

Heinz, a multinational food corporation, engaged in unethical marketing practices and was fined $2.25 million in 2018 for engaging in deceptive marketing practices. Through its advertisement, the company claimed that the toddler snacks it introduced to the market, such as Heinz little kids, were healthy, yet they were not. The snacks were found to contain at least 60% sugar, which was unhealthy for children.  The company’s actions were unethical because it deceived its customers. Similarly, Milgram’s experiment was unethical for deceiving its participants that they were torturing were the subject through electrocution. The deception exposed the participants in the study to significant psychological torture.

Companies offer customers the ability to subscribe to the various services they offer. The subscriptions provide the companies with a steady flow of revenue because they are able to deduct a certain amount of money from customers at an agreed date if they do not cancel their subscription. Some companies take advantage of this and fail to give customers an avenue of unsubscribing, thus talking their money. For instance, the meal delivery service Blue Apron faced legal suits for failing to inform customers of their rights to withdraw. Similarly, Milgram’s experiment failed to inform participants of their right to withdraw consent, thus forcing them to take part in an experiment they wanted to leave.

 The third ethical issue in Milgram’s experiment was the lack of de-hoxing the participants of the study. The debriefing given to the study participants was not done to inform them they were not inflicting pain on the subject.  The same ethical violation is common in marketing. Marketers unethically leverage the use of fallacies when marketing their products to convince customers to purchase their products. For instance, Sensodyne toothpaste often leverages the use of fallacies, such as four out of five people who approve it as the best toothpaste. Such fallacies are a hoax and therefore convince unsuspecting customers to purchase the products, which is unethical.