The Business Ethics Blog

Here’s a question: if you think product X is unethical (or maybe just morally “problematic”), can you engage in a constructive discussion about how to make that product more acceptable (while still selling it) or how to sell it more ethically?

Here’s a story & video clip from This Magazine: “The New Face of Porn”. It’s basically a story about “indie” pornography, which is (roughly) porn that is not produced by one of the big porn studios, and which (more often?) attempts to avoid the sexist stereotypes, heteronormativity, etc. common within “standard” porn. In the eyes of the producers and consumers of indy porn, indy porn is ethical porn. Of course, if you think selling images and videos of naked people doing, um, stuff to each other is intrinsically evil, maybe the idea of “ethical” porn will seem outrageous. Or maybe not.

Or think of a product that is socially controversial in another way: tobacco. Tobacco companies kill people (or help them kill themselves, if you prefer). You could argue that tobacco companies are evil. But you could also enquire into the business practices of various tobacco companies, and ask which ones do their (unethical) business more ethically. Do some treat employees better than others? Do some advertise more responsibly than others? If you’re a passionate opponent of that industry, it might be hard to wrap your head around those questions, but it’s worth the effort.

Here’s a thought experiment (or a classroom activity, for you teachers & profs out there). Fill in the blanks in the table below with behavioural examples (i.e., examples of behaviours that would differentiate good, questionable, and evil sellers of good, controversial, and evil products). An easy example: a “good” seller of meth (an evil product) only sells to current addicts, and doesn’t lure new ones into the habit. Stuff like that.