If you watch TV at all, you must have seen the Shards-O-Glass recall commercial. The tobacco situation is an obvious right versus wrong situation, thus an ethical temptation. So why are the tobacco companies still allowed to produce their product, and furthermore why does the media continue to ignore this issue?
In case you have been living under a rock, let me summarize the commercial for you. Shards-O-Glass is a sham company that represents the tobacco companies in America today. They “produce” a product, candy with bits of broken glass in it, which is obviously harmful to the people that consume it. They run commercials that show the audacity of the tobacco companies in making a product that kills their own supporters and subversively marketing their product to minors. Most recently, they are airing a commercial in which they recall their own product due to its lethality.
While these ads are extremely powerful in their message, it seems that they are falling on deaf ears. When I ran a search on Google for CNN stories about tobacco, the latest story I could find dated back to June 2009. In a further search, I found a few stories covered by Fox News and the Today Show. Yet none of them mentioned the Shards-O-Glass commercial. Why is this?
I am not sure where to find the answers to my question, but I can guess the answer has something to do with money and political power. Yet CNN claims to be a transparent news source, so this shouldn’t affect them. Right?
In our class we continually talk about ethical dilemmas. But I see the tobacco situation as a right versus wrong. It is wrong to produce a product that will kill its consumers. And it is right to speak out against those who produce deadly products. Yet, the lack of media coverage shows me otherwise.
I think that the media sources in America are being compromised by the money from big tobacco. I believe that is why they are not covering the obvious wrongdoings of the tobacco companies.
1 comment:
"...sham company that represents the tobacco industry?" Why would the tobacco companies run an AD that is against their best interest? Shards of Glass, of course, is not a real product. This spot can be seen as a public service announcement. The only difference is this organization actually paid for the time to air these anti-tobacco ads where PSAs are done for free. This is not a true ethical dilemma. I have not seen any evidence that tobacco companies are protesting the airing of these spots. In fact,due to a large class action settlement a few years ago, the tobacco companies were forced to develop a large fund which paid for the anti-smoking/tobacco public service announcements that still air on TV today. You should also recognize that the tobacco companies are banned from buying television time, even for products that don't specifically try to influence cigarette sales.
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