So I got to be discussion leader this week in class...Woo Hoo! It was super fun and I'm actually quite happy that it is over.
With in regard to both the Target article that I read & the article from the Boston Globe, selling data about someone and they don't know is unethical. I can fully understand sites like Amazon sending out weekly emails with subject lines reading "Because you bought this, you might like these..." but now places are using it to send you things that you don't even consider buying. Within regards to Target sending out baby product coupons to young teens, I can understand why people would consider that to be unethical, especially if your teen is not pregnant. But isn't it a parents job to discuss sex and the consequences to their teen? Shouldn't parents educate their young teens on how unprotected sex can cause problems? If Target had a way to send coupons to people by age and gender, this would be wiser and easier.
Targeted marketing happens every day, we are just so desensitized to it that it doesn't appear to us with an affect anymore. How many times have we gone to the grocery store and had coupons printed out at the register for a product that we've never used before? I know from past experience that a coupon printed out for my 19 year old brother for condoms. Marketing happens on a daily basis, and like we talked about in class, sex sells.
I don't really think the Target manager had an ethical obligation to the customer, but then again, it depends on some things. Did this Target manager have a child? Would he have been upset if his teen daughter got ads from other stores for baby products? Was the Target manager offended by this? However, the manager couldn't have done anything about it since it was the company he worked for. Companies usually have guidelines for customer service, especially this kind of customer service. The manager had to really just apologize and go to his superiors about what to do. However, the father was right by apologizing when he found out that it was his mistake and that he knew his daughter was pregnant. That was the right thing to do, both ethically and morally.
Target mixing up their coupon ads is still targeted marketing. I got a coupon book from Target a few weeks ago and now it's put by section, Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son, Pets, etc. It's still targeting certain people of the home. Of course, this also happened a lot when I was younger. Toys R Us used to send out their big toy catalog every year. This was fun and exciting but it was always by section, Girls Toys, Boys Toys, Teen Toys...You would never see a Barbie on the same page of a Hot Wheels car. Gender roles also play into marketing as well since society thinks girls should act differently from boys.
In the PRSA Code of Ethics, The Disclosure of Information struck me for this news story. Granted, the father didn't know at first that his daughter was pregnant, but when he apologized when Target called him, he disclosed that his daughter was pregnant. Would this make Target send her more coupons related to her pregnancy? Any data that anyone discloses is usually put into some sort of date base, as proved by the Boston Globe article.
Ethical perspectives for this story are hard to come up with and discuss. Kant's Categorical Imperative is the first thing that comes to my mind. Kant focuses on the action and if the action is considered ethical. Is Target being ethical by sending out baby coupons? Well, did they know that the girl was under the age of 18? It's hard to tell. Communitarism would be another ethical tool to solve this issue. Communitarism is when the community interest tramps individual interest and brings social justice. Would not shipping out coupons to people under 18 hurt Target in the community? In my opinion, Target is so widely known and popular with so many age groups that I don't think it would hurt them at all. Aristotle's Golden Mean would work best for me in this situation though. Is Target trying to be the best they can be? Yes, Target is trying to use marketing to help their customers save money, but not ethically. They are trying to sell items to people who may not use it or may not feel that those coupons may be needed.
Looking at this story from a privacy point of view is important though. Since this girl is considered a teen, why would she be getting coupons for baby products anyway? In chapter 10 of our book for class, Newton explains that he believes privacy needs to be redefined to say "Privacy is the right of an individual to keep thoughts and information to him or herself". Did this young girl need to tell her father that she was pregnant? Since teen pregnancy can be a controversial issue, was this young girl trying to protect her privacy? The sad thing about this is that stores and media live and thrive by invading people's privacy and taking that away from them.
Personal story here about when I worked in a grocery store. When I worked at the A&P for a little while, we would hand out coupons. These coupons would print from the register at the end of a customers order for use on their next shopping trip. My brother is now 19 and he came in to buy razors, but instead he was printed a coupon for condoms. Would it be ethical to give someone under the age of 18 a coupon for condoms? Would it even be ethical to consider selling condoms to someone under the age of 18? How do we prevent these issues?
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