1.2 Ethical Issues in Tobacco Industry
The tobacco industry provides a classic setting to study the ethicality of marketing practices in general. Though legal, many elements of their marketing strategies have been subject of intense public discussion with regard to whether those practices are appropriate for a potentially harmful product, and thus raise ethical questions. So far, any discussion of ethicality of tobacco marketing practices in popular press and other media have represented only the views of regulatory agencies and public interest groups. Absence of any organized effort to study how consumers evaluate the marketing activities for tobacco products is very surprising. In an attempt to address this gap, this study explores consumers' ethical perceptions of the marketing activities for tobacco products. First, in this exploratory research, we examine how consumers evaluate the ethicality of several marketing activities. Then, we examine how consumers' ethical evaluations differ due to variations in age, belief in freedom of business enterprises, family status, and product usage. Finally, we study how consumers' perception of ethicality of marketing efforts is related to the overall reputation of tobacco industry.