Wednesday, October 25, 2006

yesterday on the marketing profs blog section, ck (christina kerley, a new york based professional) posted some meaningfull thoughts about beauty and marketers responsability.
briefly, we are all in charge whenever false or misleading message get to teens and tweens and drive them to eating disorders. what is really impressing is the thread that followed: 30 comments were posted and some unique point of view.

- beauty is in the hand of marketers
- the message is that you MUST be thinner and thinner
- meanwhile the fastfood deliver to you thousands of calories and fat
- eating disorders hit kids younger and younger
- we are all into it because of being parents or relatives of teens and tweens
- we all knew someone with eating disorder and know about the consequence

get there and give a look at http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/10/face_it_marketers_beauty_is_ou_1.html

this is the picture in the usa but what about europe? and italy? are we really different?

in the last five years, in italy obese people index grew of 25%.
36% of the kids aged 9 yo is obese
3 millions people suffer of eating disorder.
10% of the girls suffer as well.
in europe obese people index grew between 10% and 40% with higher index in eastern countries.

we are all in business to make our clients more profitable but the ethic side of marketing and communication should not kept apart.
what about you?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for raising awareness of this issue...and yes, it is one of ethics and socially responsible marketing.

I'm hoping the trend towards authenticity and healthy images and messaging equates into a permanent shift. We marketers don't always realize how powerful our work is meaning, we need to do more good than harm.

Your blog is coming along beautifully--isn't it addicting?

gianandrea said...

thanks, ck.
blogging is addicting.
my dogs are already complaining :-(
i'm working on this stuff very hard to make it better.

marketers ethic and social responsibility is a key issue because marketing is not only related to sell products but to sell ideas and thoughts, too.

Anonymous said...

Just keep working it--it's a lot to get into but it pays in so many ways like new smarts, new pals, new opportunities...and a new way of looking at this connected world.

You'll be amazed at how you ever got along without it. You can hold me to that.

P.S.: Dogs can blog, too.