The debate could be extended into your classrooms when you cover ethics, legal, or corporate social responsibility — which comes in the first and last chapters of our books.  It could also be discussed in the segmentation chapters (we have an Ethics Exercise on a topic relevant to this in our segmentation chapter) or in ethics when covering promotion or product.

Is the future of online advertising one of incredibly targeted advertising based on your interests, online activities and Facebook “likes,” or is it one dictated by robust privacy controls that keep those details out of the hands of marketers?

This article at CNN.com “‘Like’ it or not, online ads are getting personal” (January 31, 2011) starts by asking this question.  It seems to me that many of our students care very little about their personal privacy.  The article describes behavioral advertising and notes that the Federal Trade Commission is considering a “Do Not Track” list similar to the “Do Not Call” list created to curb telemarketing.  It looks like the browser makers are getting out in front of the issue by creating the “no track” option — Microsoft Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox offer the opportunity to “opt out” of behavioral tracking, few users are likely to select this option (that assumes the default is that you will be tracked — but that is another issue). Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

This issue raises important questions about ethics and legal issues in marketing, privacy, technology, and promotion.

Students usually find this practice abhorrent — and claim it must be illegal.  Selecting some of these examples might lead to an interesting in-class discussion of price discrimination along strategic, legal, and ethical lines.

Some highlights in the TerraChoice report:

• 4744 products in 2010 claimed to be “green” (up 73% from 2009)
• 95% of these committed at least one of the sins of greenwashing.

File under product labeling, product, ethics, social responsibility or sustainability.  What responsibility do marketers have?

The initiative seeks to educate children in grades four through six — tweens, in the parlance of marketing — about how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices when they shop or when they ask parents to shop on their behalf.

While I could review the game and site, I know that good market research should be done with the target market.  Well I happen to have a fifth grader — right at the heart of the target market for the government effort.  So I asked Mallory to play the game and offer a brief review.  I know, bad marketing research to use a sample size of one.  After about 10 minutes — she had to get ready for school — it got a tentative thumb’s up.  She said it was “pretty good.”  When I asked if she would play it again if her dad did not force her, she said “Probably, maybe it would be more fun if I got to the higher levels.”   I asked about how fun it was compared to other online games, and she said, “I guess it is almost as fun as Bush Hot Dog” – I figured that was an endorsement.  I will let you know if she really goes back for more on her own.

In our text books the last chapter evaluates marketing from a micro- and macro- perspective.  This article could be used to discuss the ethics of advertising to children and the role of government.