Are Advertisements Honest?

 

The field of advertising is extremely broad and diverse. In general terms, of course, an advertisement is simply a public notice meant to convey information and invite patronage or some other response. As that suggests, advertising has two basic purposes: to inform and to persuade, and — while these purposes are distinguishable — both very often are simultaneously present. But is informing and persuading both in line with each other? If you try to persuade, does it mean you inform the consumers the truth? If you inform, does it capture the minds (and the pockets) of the consumers? Not all the time, as I personally think about it.

Advertisers are selective about the values and attitudes to be fostered and encouraged, promoting some while ignoring others. This selectivity gives the lie to the notion that advertising does no more than reflect the surrounding culture. Now let's look at a more subtle shade of truth in an infamous Volvo commercial I read. In a real-life monster truck show, the Volvo was the only car left uncrushed - a great idea for a commercial! But to make the ad, the film company needed to shoot several takes. So they reinforced the beams inside the car to stand repeated squashing. When this came out in the press, Volvo was pilloried and their ad agency got fired, ultimately going out of business. Did it serve them right? Or was it a bum rap? No question the demo was rigged. But what it showed was the truth: if a monster truck runs over you once, you're safer in the Volvo. Is the advertisement itself honest? Technically, yes! Because one take has left the Volvo uncrushed. But how many takes did it take to crush the Volvo? Countless. So is Volvo’s marketing department and ad agency honest? That is for a consumer to decide.

 Advertising in itself is useful tool for sustaining competition by informing people of the availability of rationally desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones. But Advertising weakens or undermines personal autonomy; that some kinds of advertising are immoral. Advertising plays on human desires for security, acceptance, and self-esteem to influence consumer choices. And as future business leaders, we have to take responsibility in Ethical Advertising. We have to make sure that: we respect truthfulness, the dignity each human person, and social responsibilities.

Corporate Consumer Responsibility

Before corporations and businesses dip their hands to contribute to the society, they have to make sure they have responsibilities to the welfare of the most important aspect of their business, the consumers. After tackling the Ford-Firestone case and pointing out different ethical issues like the labor issues and their inability to disclose information to the public, it all boils down to one question – what is your responsibility to consumers? What duty do we have to our buyers to make sure we don’t take advantage of the consumers being misinformed?

Before even selling, we need to make sure our products (or services) are safe enough to be consumed by millions of people. In the Ford-Firestone case, consumers do not know that a tire problem exists in Ford Explorers that could cause a rollover and could (and had) cause countless casualties. Ford did not just undisclose these facts, but they could’ve done better testing to check its reliability especially that the lives of the people are at risk.

 

When it comes to advertising, we also have a responsibility to persuade, but not manipulate. Being a part-time financial advisor trainee, I was able to open my eyes on different techniques of selling – which unfortunately, involves deception at seldom times. Since I work at a life insurance company, insurance is a tough product to sell to consumers, especially when the majority of the market is not financially literate. A deceptive example would be presenting to potential clients his/her financial needs through Living on Interest financial planning process. It involves determining your needed amount to provide for the family assuming that the only means for you to earn regularly is through interests. So if your monthly income is Php50,000, and the interest rate is at 4%, then you will need at least Php15M worth of cash to sustain your basic needs. This process could be effective because for it could trigger people’s sense of urgency to get a life insurance and mutual fund as early as possible and convince them to contribute large amounts as much as possible to meet the need. Though this may be still be beneficial in the long run, convincing them that they need a large amount of money just to sustain current needs is just wrong because of several reasons: one – it assumes that the only way for you to earn would be to rely on interests alone and two – it is not okay for you to touch the Php15M because it will impact your monthly minimum earnings. From the beginning, I knew that this style of computation is very deceiving so I committed to myself not to present this kind of presentation.

Pre-Service Learning:Handog Tungkod Project

My lola became became handicapped because of a simple accident of slipping in her bathroom. Just a minor slip caused her the next 5 years of her life, even until death, to stay in bed most of the time. She was transferred from Bulacan to our home in Las Pinas so hospitals are more accessible and visits from relatives will be easier. I was able to see her perseverance with a physical therapist to get her feet up and try to walk again on her own. After 2 years of physical therapy sessions, we accepted the fact that she won’t be able to walk anymore and use a wheelchair instead. She was sitting in a wheelchair when God decided it was already her time.

Handog Tungkod Project’s mission is to give a cane to every elderly person in the Philippines. It may sound quite simple as a service learning activity but it is very close to my heart. With their vision “To honor God by serving and caring for the elderly”, I was suddenly reminded of my lola’s experience. All she ever wanted was to walk, and it’s a simple blessing that I’m sure almost all of us don’t even appreciate. Giving canes to the elderly will help them reach that simple goal again, which is to walk normally.

I admit that when my groupmate suggested Handog Tungkod Project as our CSR activity, I was not really excited about it at first. I was looking forward to teaching financial literacy to children in the most rural places since teaching is my passion, especially in the field of finance. But due to schedule, resource, and location constraints, we were not able to push through. But after realizing the value of the project’s intent to the elderly, and relating it with my grandmother’s experience, I suddenly got excited about the activity. I hope our service to the elderly in November will not only help them walk, but also give them a positive outlook in life.

 

The Means Against The End

 

Out of all the ethical frameworks discussed the ones that struck me the most is utilitarianism vs. Kantianism. Kantian ethics is considered to be deontological in that it holds that at action is right in and of itself without appeal to consequences. Utilitarianism bases its understanding of right action on consequences. For Kant, lying is simply wrong because of the practical reason that it’s simply wrong, without any appeal to consequences. For John Stuart Mill, lying is ok as long as it creates more happiness and the least pain, for the greatest number of people affected by that action.

This got me thinking not only about business ethics but also the practical things in life. Even before learning Kantianism and Utilitarianism, in my mind I already had this “philosophical arguments” right after watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America’s objective was to hijack Hydra’s developed data-mining algorithm that can identify and kill individuals who might become future threats to Hydra’s plans. That, and of course, to save the world. From Hydra’s point of view, it simply is practical since they have the ability to prevent and eliminate current and future threats against the organization. Even innocent children will be killed as long as the algorithm, “Project Insight”, has detected a behavioral pattern that can threaten Hydra. Project Insight in itself is already at the extreme side of utilitarianism since their priority is to protect the organization at all costs, even killing the lives of the innocent. We all know that it’s fictional, but what if utilitarianism abounds everywhere in the world? If a man got caught from stealing a cellphone, will it be for the greater good if we just eliminate that person instead to avoid future thefts? Will we be in a better situation if people who committed and have a potential to commit crime are all eradicated to prevent further wrongdoings and ultimately create more happiness to the world?

 

I’m glad our justice system doesn’t work and think that way. We all have our duties, and we have a stringent requirement we’re bound to obey even if the consequences are not the best. This is why we’re not only bound to make our decisions based on utilitarianism and kantianism alone. Justice and fairness, rights, care, and virtue are other principles in ethics that should also be taken into consideration in order to consider a comparative treatment to others, and how our moral character can contribute (or obstruct) human lives.

Vocation of a Business Leader

 

When people hear the word “business leader”, usually first thing that comes to mind are “CEO”, “Manager”, etc. These business titles share one goal – profit. Traditional business leaders are inclined to do everything they possible can in order to maximize the bottom line of the company: cut general costs, terminate employees to reduce overhead, consider cheaper alternatives that compromise quality, etc. Profit maximization in itself is not bad at all, but we have to consider the type of action in order to meet the goal. If our primary goal is to increase net profit, is cutting jobs number 1 priority to hit the target? If we want to reduce the cost in waste management, is throwing wastes in Pasig river the number 1 solution? Maybe a traditional business leader will consider these options, but for a Lasallian business leader, areas outside the business like environment should also be taken into consideration.

 The new breed of business leaders do not only prioritize the economic (profit) needs, but also the legal, ethical and philanthropic areas as well. As a future DLSU MBA graduate, integrating the core Lasallian values to business practices is a necessity. It’s unfortunate that we lack leaders of this type, which is why a call for transformation is needed in our country.

Work Towards Financial Freedom

Watching Suze Orman’s financial planning tips at Google made me realize that managing your money through proper financial planning is not just about saving, it’s about making smart choices to prepare yourself for any situation that can happen. Suze has pointed out doing what’s right vs. doing what easy. She also mentioned that even though we are earning well, we also need to do something for ourselves to prepare for the future and possibly unpleasant surprises. Although some of her tips applies only to US citizens like investing in 401K, most of them are truly practical and applicable to all of us.

I have listened, read, and researched about financial planning since 2012, as soon as I got employed in P&G.  What I fear the most is not being able to manage my revenue streams properly and could end up full of debt. My family is not really the wisest when it comes to financial management, and I have learned a lot from their experiences. Honestly, I have learned more on what NOT to do vs. what to do. This is why I have this frustration to learn more about money, business, entrepreneurship, and financial management to make sure I won’t commit those same mistakes.

Even after gaining financial literacy, it’s still a shame that I don’t have at least a 3 months’ worth of emergency fund. I had been so aggressive yet careless on where I can invest my hard-earned money. My practical learning from this session is to set-aside a portion of my salary by auto-deducting it from my payslip and put in a cooperative fund. Next is having security against possible serious mishaps. Well-known financial advisors always highlight insurance being a necessity and not a luxury. Even though I already have a Variable Universal  Life insurance policy with a face value of P1M, I still have plans to get another policy to prepare for my retirement even as early as now.  After securing the basic financial needs, then I can start expanding it through investments in mutual funds, UITFs, and other investment vehicles.

It always saddens me every time I talk to a friend, a family member, or a loved one that does not even entertain the thought of getting an emergency fund and insurance. And it gets worse if they can afford a Louise Vuitton bag, a Macbook, an iPhone, but cannot afford an insurance. And every time it happens, I have this urge to explain to them the importance of financial planning and how other investment vehicles can help them achieve their goals in the future. Maybe this is the reason why I decided to become a financial planner of Sunlife. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have made this decision not to make extra money, but because I’m truly sincere about people being financially literate. Perhaps soon I could commit my advocacy to teach people how to attain financial freedom. Could this be my calling? Could this be my purpose? Could this help me achieve self-actualization? I don’t know the answer right now but I know that making people happy to help them attain financial freedom also makes me happy; even when I put the money and the commissions out of the equation.

Work-Life Harmony

 

What am I working for?

What am I resting in?

What am I living for?

3 big questions that made me reflect during our class. The answers to these 3 questions depend on one’s purpose. If a person is a bread-winner of the family, he may be working for money to make sure he can provide at least the basic needs to his loved ones. If a person comes from a well-off family, then financial needs may not be his top priority. He has enough buffers to find and chase his passion, learn from mistakes, and ultimately pursue his calling – may it be baking, photography, dancing, etc.

What am I working for? I see work as a career. I need to work to provide for myself and for my family in the future. I need to go up the corporate ladder to have a sense of fulfillment and be respected. I need to work to earn more money. But is it all about money? At this stage, maybe it is. But I know I need to do something more meaningful in the future. Bridging the gap between work as career and work as vocation could be challenging and would require more psychological and emotional maturity to realize it, but as early as now, I already have my plans. I truly believe that my calling is to be an entrepreneur. At age 40, I see myself retired from the corporate world to pursue my future business full time. At that stage, work will not be all about myself anymore; it will actually rely more on being a leader to my future employees as well as considering the welfare of the whole organization.

What am I resting in? I see leisure as utility. Rest is just another means to sharpen the saw. Outside work, I rarely go outside to have fun with friends anymore. Taking up MBA, being a part-time financial planner of Sunlife, and leading a small team to build a mobile app sure doesn’t sound like amusement. I’m now in a stage where I need to be productive even outside working hours; and when I say productive - I mean making more money (or at least will have a bearing to my future career). Bridging the gap between leisure as utility and leisure as contemplation may be very challenging as well due to time constraints. However, as a proud member of Iglesia Ni Cristo, even with my tight schedule, I still strive to attend worship services twice a week. I know it’s not enough but I have a plan in the future to be more active in the church organization.

What am I living for? Currently, I live to achieve. Achievement is key in order to meet my financial goals to prepare for the future. Integration between work and leisure may turn out to be self-centered for now, but I’m aware that it also goes along with life stages. Time will come that building my own integrity will be the top priority by giving and receiving – resolving while maintaining humility.