Ethical Dilemma

Although you are relatively new to your company, you have been placed in charge of marketing team for a new line of skin care products called Revitalization. The task for your marketing team is to come up with the product packaging and print ad campaign for the entire line of skin care products. The manufacturer would like your company to emphasize the idea that the products are environmentally safe and 100% hypoallergenic for all users. In an effort to familiarize yourself with the product, you sample the hand cream and develop a mild rash on your hand - clearly from an allergic reaction to one of the chemicals in the product. It is clear that that the product is not 100% hypoallergenic for all consumers and that making such a statement on the product packaging and in the ad campaign would be considered false advertising. This places both your ad agency and the product's manufacturer at risk.

As the leader of the marketing team, it is your responsibility to make your supervisor aware of the situation.

Discussion:

In memorandum addressed to your supervisor, inform him of the problem your team has encountered and provide a suggestion on how your ad agency should proceed. Your memorandum should:

Outline the particular problem/issue;

Explain/outline/address the ethical ramifications for both your company and the product's manufacturer;

Provide a fully developed suggestion on how to proceed. This may entail suggesting how to communicate the issue to the company or providing a rewording the problematic advertising line (100% hypoallergenic). The suggestion is completely up to you.

The memorandum should be organized and follow a format for a general memorandum.

Your memorandum should be fully developed, meaning that you detail your information for an audience that is not familiar at all with the particular case.