Trash Talking in Marketing

At this point all of us are very familiar with the rivalry amongst AT&T and Verizon. In prior years this rivalry may not have been at the forefront of our attention. However, more recently it is nearly impossible not to turn on the TV without seeing an ad that appears as if one of the companies is directly attacking or saying something poorly about the other. Rivalries to a certain extent can be healthy and keep markets competitive. However, I feel as if these ads are taking it too far, and actually becoming quite annoying. For me these ads make me less interested in the product being advertised and are almost distracting me from what the product or service actually is. Sure the ad is effective in the sense that I can remember it, but certainly it is not effective in the sense that I want to support or remain loyal to that product or service.

I have also seen this type of marketing in other settings. For example the other day I was driving down a street in which McDonald's and Wendy's are next to each other. On one of the company's large signs where they advertise their latest deals the sign instead read, "Fresh beef sold here, frozen patties next door." I feel as if these direct attacks are being more and more common. Lately I have also seen commercials for Clorox talking badly about Tide, and even a commercial where on pizza company claims another pizza companies ads are false.

Do you think this is effective marketing? Do you think this type of advertisement actually has an adverse effect on these companies?

Here is a link to a commercial that Verizon made against AT&T around Christmas time...

John Smith Questions

Not knowing the exact details and the guidelines in which he conducts these surveys makes it hard to determine if these names should or should not be sold. If John conducts these surveys under the confidentiality that the information he gathers will not be shared with outside parties, then absolutely he should not. An example of this from the AMA's statement of ethics is mentioned under the terms of fairness. Under these terms it states that a professional organization should avoid knowingly participating in conflicts of interest, and should seek to protect private information of customers, employees, and partners. For John to sell this information would be to betray the trust of his customers and in turn create a conflict of interest. John would neglect the agreement he made with his customers to better himself and his company.

On the flip side if John were allowed to sell this information he could actually use it to help out his customer base. The AMA's statement of ethics mentions responsibility and as part of responsibility a professional organization must strive to serve the needs of customers. John is selling information about people who are likely, or very likely to purchase cars; he is not necessarily troubling people who have no intentions of purchasing cars. Having a car dealership contact these customers may actually be a step in the right direction to get them started in purchasing a car where as maybe before they didn't know how to go about this.

Can you think of any terms under the AMA's statement of ethics that could apply from the perspective of John's employees, or his customers?