Unethical Marketing: Why the Bad Works so Good

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, “business ethics scandals” have risen enormously. More so, many researchers believe that marketing ethics was directly involved in many of these scandals (Murphy, Laczniak, Bowie, & Klein, 2005). Unethical marketing is a large segment of marketing that is surprisingly used by many companies. The research and data collected for this project emphasizes that factors such as gender, age, and the “ethical conscience” of people effects their personal views toward particular advertisements that utilize unethical marketing tactics. In addition, this research theorizes that unethical marketing strategies generally have positive effects in terms of influencing consumer behavior. Therefore, this project illustrates how companies are capable of influencing consumer behavior in order to promote a company’s image and create brand loyalty with consumers despite the implementation of unethical practices.