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Advertising and Social Responsibility
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
I have been deeply thinking about the importance of advertising and how it affects society. For years I have been pondering why there are more alcohol, cigarette, and birth control advertisements in magazines devoted to black readers as opposed to those targeted to whites. By accepting so many of these ads, is this the only way of making enough revenue to continue publishing their magazines, even though they know these products undoubtedly hurt their communities? Do companies and the products they tout have consumers and media outlets by the "balls"? Those are the types of questions I had to honestly ask myself last week during my big dilemma.Even in the 30s and 40s, the formula industry was much like the cigarette industry then. It seems justifiable to say consumers didn't rationalize very much during this era, did they? If we analyze things in simplest terms, mothers en masse were feeding their babies a liquid substance that is solely intended to nourish a calf and smoking became a societal mainstay of the era. But common sense tells us that smoking is basically sucking on fire and babies should be nourished by mothers milk. How were both of these practices so adamantly justified? Where was the common sense? How far do consumers go before giving in to corporations that peddle unhealthy products? And how far do businesses go before they sell out to huge corporations?
As I mentioned last week, I won't (nor would I have) accept a formula ad. My responsibility to my readers will remain on the side of mother and infant health, even though admittedly accepting an ad such as this would do wonders from a business perspective.
Labels: breastfeeding history, commentary
posted by Jennifer James @ 9:50 AM,
3 Comments:
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At October 30, 2007 3:09 PM,
said...
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i've been reading your blog for a while but i check it every day now since you started doing the audio blogs. i love the pictures and words but it's even better to hear the voice behind them.
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At October 30, 2007 4:27 PM,
Reiza said...
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I must pipe up and say a big thanks from your readers. Thank you so much for putting the health of moms and babies first.
I know the money is tempting and there are many who have accepted it. Thanks for not being one of them. -
At October 31, 2007 8:49 AM,
Jennifer James said...
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Anon -- I'm so glad you enjoy my audio posts. I decided to try it out, so that's great to hear. Thank you!
Reiza -- The ad wouldn't have gone on this blog, but on another separate web site I own. But I hear ya! The $$ would be good, but why sacrifice one's beliefs for fleeting cash?
