Selling Sin: : The Marketing of Socially Unacceptable Products

Citation

Rotfeld, H.J. (1998), "Selling Sin: : The Marketing of Socially Unacceptable Products", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 78-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.1998.15.1.78.1

The provocative title discouraged me from leaving the book where my Southern Baptist relatives might see it when visiting. But its discussion is less provocative: an examination of the “marketing problems and challenges” faced by marketers of cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, firearms, gambling and pornography. These are five categories of widely‐used and legal products the very existence of which is criticized by various segments of the public on moral, ethical or public health grounds. And because of those criticisms, many basic marketing practices for these products face negative public reactions, pragmatic marketing restrictions and government regulatory restraints.

In an easy‐to‐read and straightforward style, Professor Davidson provides insight into the history of these businesses, plus the basis of various past and present criticisms by either organized groups, public leaders or government agencies. He does not moralize. With some brief exceptions, discussions do not condone or condemn the products or the marketing practices, and the exceptions are almost side‐notes. It would not be obvious from the tone that he writes a monthly column on ethics in Marketing News, and the problems raised by employees of the firms are not presented in terms of their (potential) ethical conflicts.

After presenting a brief introductory outline of the issues and common concerns of the product categories in the first chapter, chapters 2 through 6 take each of the five businesses in turn and discuss their industry structure and social history, both of the businesses themselves but also of various criticisms and marketing constraints. Chapters 7 through 12 then go into detail on how specific marketing activities are criticized and restricted, with each chapter as a marketing topic area (e.g. pricing and distribution, target marketing) and the discussion delves into problems faced by each business area.

The discussions could interest a wide variety of people, yet it is difficult to discern the intended audience for the book. People in the businesses already know what he says and devout critics of the sale of the products would not be interested in reading his even‐handed discussion. I would assign it as a required assignment in one of my classes except that the price makes it prohibitively expensive. It provides references and documentation, as with any respectable research book, yet any new analysis or insight from the discussion is minimal. The final chapter is more of a summary than a set of conclusions or recommendations. Some segments of the book are very basic, as when there is a definition of “targeting” or other business terms, a problem when some readers are knowledgeable of marketing practices while others might be totally ignorant.

Yet at the same time, he raises important questions and provides some historical perspective for current events, even though recent events make some of the discussed concerns about cigarettes and alcohol moot.

At its core, the book addresses a basic problem about these businesses. Some of these companies do a good job of following the dictates of thorough strategic marketing, even though many people might wish that, for these products, marketing was not used. To many people, these are products where any marketing effort is misplaced. On one hand, the makers of a product, any product, try to find segments in which product use is increasing, or at least remains strong in light of decreasing per capita demand. Once finding those segments, like any other firm, the marketers wish to provide products, design brand names, produce advertising and sell at a price that satisfies consumer needs.

It is strange how targeting almost any group for these products other than well‐to‐do white males is criticized. Of course, children should not be the targets of these adult products, but the critics of market practices also refer to adult women, African‐Americans, Hispanics and other minorities as “vulnerable groups”. It is strange that only possessors of a pale penis are perceived to also possess the potential to personally resist the persuasive power of marketing promotions. But while the discussion describes the problems, it does not delve into the rationales. Maybe it is the reasons that people like the products that critics disdain, since the target decisions involve these consumer motivations. Some women are buying guns out of a fear and related concerns for personal protection. People play lotteries for greed. The strong demand segments for cigarettes, malt liquors and other dangerous products are people too young, uneducated or otherwise too naive to know the full risks.

But the basic point remains that public and government criticism of these socially unacceptable products restricts their marketing options. What are common marketing tools for most products must often be used with caution in these categories. Marketing options are limited, though the actual reasons might not be fully understood by the public. And, again, the breadth of the book’s discussion sometimes limits any in‐depth delving into these reasons. Yet the reasons give insight into the pragmatic restrictions on marketing decision making and how they turn into marketing campaigns.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States Code is generally given credit for keeping gin, scotch, vodka and other products off television up to 1996 by its self‐imposed ban on such advertising for the past five decades. It is understandable how it would like to claim credit, and the book repeats these claims as fact (p. 135), but such claims are more image than substance. Actually, the products have been visible in some broadcast realms prior to 1996, just not the places watched by many people.

What really kept the distilled products off most of television was that very, very few broadcast stations, would accept any such commercials. The companies were faced with a simple choice: make commercials for those small audiences that might see commercials on those few stations, or design campaigns that depended on print media. Given the potential for strong negative public reactions, coupled with the very limited potential marketing gain, pragmatic business decisions would logically conclude to stick with print.

Two decades ago, a company sold M*A*S*H Vodka, a joke product based on the popular television program and sold in a liter bag as seen on the show. For that special product, television was a necessary advertising tool, regardless of the small audiences, so its commercials were seen on those few stations that would accept the commercials.

Prior to 1988, Spanish language stations and networks readily accepted distilled product advertising. So, for those audiences, the manufacturers used the broadcast media for their campaigns. The mainstream, English language stations did not, so they depended on print media for those audiences.

What changed in 1988 is that the Spanish stations and networks stopped accepting the commercials, accompanied by fanfare and congratulatory editorials in Advertising Age. What changed in 1996 is that some visible major market stations decided to accept Seagrams’ commercials. After the Seagrams, commercials, were aired, and realizing that other stations and advertisers’ might soon follow suit, the Distilled Spirits Council quickly altered the code to say that television advertising is acceptable, probably to avoid what could otherwise have become a conflict with its major members. Government leaders, regulators and some public interest groups have proposed possible regulatory actions, placing all alcoholic beverages under scrutiny and even threatening the broadcasters with possible loss of beer and wine advertising. Black Entertainment Television was the only major cable‐TV network that announced it would accept distilled product advertising, yet no commercials were subsequently placed, possibly a function of the advertisers’ realistic concern that such a singular placement would raise criticisms of “manipulation” and “undesirable targeting” of minorities.

And so it goes.

Of course, the author notes at the outset that the five business categories selected are not all inclusive of those facing these types of problems. And even within some categories, some of the businesses are so diverse and heterogeneous that the types of products needed to be restricted for purposes of discussion. Firearms owners have a more organized political lobby than the manufacturers; pornography runs the range from media which use sex to gather an audience for sale to advertisers (such as Playboy or Penthouse) to producers of sex‐based products whose income is from the final sale.

In the final chapter, the author asserts that “In the long run a company’s right to continue in business is granted by society, not by its profitability. If an organization is to maximize its return to its shareholders, it must maximize its contribution to society in which it operates.” This is the most provocative statement in the book, a premise that many readers would find questionable. Unfortunately, it is never really expanded or explained except to note that the five industries of his discussion “are good examples of what happens when an industry begins to lose legitimacy” (p. 197).

A well‐known adman once noted that advertising’s critics give it credit for all sorts of power over the ways people think while its practitioners defend it with all sorts of nonsense. So, too, with marketing. A very visible business practice, it becomes the most criticized. As many social observers have stated, liberals want to have government involved in business, religious conservatives want to control what individuals can do and, as stated by P.J. O’Rourke, the view of most individuals is that, “We want to be left alone!” Regardless of popular “appeal” or social acceptability people want to buy these products. Maybe the issue is not legitimacy, but rather the ups and downs of government or public groups that try and sometimes succeed in restricting how consumers use a product about which non‐users disapprove.

The book does not really provide any marketing lessons, but it does give some insight into how forces other than a product’s consumers can influence how it is sold. In the ongoing debates about these and other products, this compilation provides information that should not be overlooked.