Worst examples of unethical marketing revealed in new survey

By / Mel Dixon / In Best practice /

There is a litany of poor marketing and advertising practices remembered in a new survey from the New Statesman Media Group (New Statesman, Press Gazette, sustainable luxury lifestyle and ESG publishers).

From Fyre Festival to Kendall Jenner and Pepsi to demonstrate the dangers of collaborating with unethical influencers, to Volkswagen and their greenwashing scandal, examples of brands ignoring ethics are plentiful.

In this report, New Statesman Media Group disclosed which unethical tricks are considered the most heinous by senior marketers, business leaders and publishers, ranking the 7 choices in order of egregiousness.

Download the free report to discover which tactic was ranked as the lowest of the low

There is a good reason for this report. Over the past year, marketing platform Semrush found there was a 200% increase in searches for ‘ethical marketing strategies’ between Jan and Dec 2021 in the UK.

The BBC followed this same line, citing a global review by management consultancy firm Accenture, which found “60% [of people] have made more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or ethical purchases since the start of the pandemic.

“Nine out of 10 of that percentage were likely to continue doing so.”

Responders were asked to choose from the following malevolent strategies:
Greenwashing (brand a product as eco-friendly, green or sustainable when such claims are false)
Concealing important information (omit certain details which happen to be vital)
Targeting the vulnerable (deliberately target consumers who least need the product or service in question)
Non-transparent data use (use consumer data in a non-advertised fashion)
Collaborating with unethical influencers (partner with the wrong type of influencer or on the wrong subject)
Clickbait article headlines (calls to action do not deliver on promises)
Newsjacking (boost a brand by aligning with current events or cultural issues)

Representatives from Henley Business School, Raconteur, Mindshare, Faze Digital, Bloc, Energy PR, Klaviyo and The Global Marketing Alliance all supplied comments.

Download the free report to discover which tactic was ranked as the lowest of the low

Username

Basic Information

First Name *

Last Name *

Company *

Job Title *

Country *

Account Information

Password

Confirm Password

E-mail Address

Confirm E-mail

Biographical Info

Share a little biographical information to fill out your profile. This may be shown publicly.

Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions – website usage

Welcome to the Global Marketing Alliance (GMA). The GMA website is a product of the Global Marketing Alliance Ltd. If you continue to browse and use this website, you are agreeing to comply with the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy, govern GMA’s dealings with you in relation to this website. If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions, please do not use our website.

GMA may amend these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting the amended Terms and Conditions on the GMA site.

The term GMA or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is at 7a Queen Street, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1BA, UK. The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website or to those who become members of GMA.

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
The information provided and the opinions expressed in this website represent the views of the authors and contributors.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. We are not liable for any inaccuracies or errors.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, it is your responsibility to check that the information available meets your requirements.
This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
Information on this site may be contributed by our members or other contributors (including in blogs). We do not control the information they provide and are not responsible for the views expressed
If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed on this site please notify us. We accept no liability for infringements as a result of user generated content but we will take reasonable action to remove such content where possible.
Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, we take no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
We reserve the right to refuse, suspend or cancel your access to the site at any time and without notice.
If you are acting as an employee, you warrant that you are authorised to enter into legally binding contracts on behalf of your employer. You further warrant that your employer agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
Purchases of training products or delegate places at events advertised on this site are subject to the terms and conditions of the providers.
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Copyright notice

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

you may print extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
you may refer to and quote from the content for review or reference purposes within the limits of “fair dealing”, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material
You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.

I agree to the Terms and Conditions

Full Name LEAVE THIS BLANK

I agree to the Terms and Conditions

Author: Mel Dixon

Editor at Global Marketing Alliance

Editor and freelance writer wading his way through the world of data. One step at a time. Interested in data driven marketing insights supported by... data.