Some organizations treat the topic of ethics as though it were something on a checklist. “We have an ethics page on our site; therefore we are ethical.”
The word ethics leaves a lot of room for this type of behavior. In the end, being ethical simply means consistently following a set of rules. But the rules can be anything, and are for the most part left up to the individual or corporation. Take the following:
Company X: Public Relations Ethics Code
Rule 1: Create a new account (not a fake, but an “avatar” representing our corporate beliefs) any time a website negatively covers our news to inform the public in a friendly manner.
Rule 2: Ensure as many people as possible hear our news by sending out mass e-mails to thousands, or if possible tens of thousands, of users.
Rule 3: Encourage industry experts to tout our products by giving them regular financial incentive packages.
Rule 4: Sacrifice a kitten any time someone retweets a blog post.
Company X, if it followed this code with consistency (it’s hard to keep well stocked with kittens), would technically be ethical. But would they be good? Even the biggest cat hater would have a hard time thinking so.
Approach codes of ethics with caution and skepticism, because it’s the next place the sleazy companies will go in an effort to look good while still being bad.
Related posts:
- The price of being sleazy: Three hundred thousand dollars
- Digg’s short URL fiasco and what we can learn from it
- On shilling: Where the “everyone does it” sleaze mentality comes from
- On FTC’s blogging guidelines, ‘clearly and conspicuously’ is what everyone should be talking about
- Brand image and brand perception: Two sides of the same coin
