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Marketing to Inner-City Blacks: PowerMaster and Moral Responsibility

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  • Brenkert, George G.

Abstract

PowerMaster was a malt liquor which Heileman Brewing Company sought to market to inner-city blacks in the early 1990s. Due to widespread opposition, Heileman ceased its marketing of PowerMaster. This paper begins by exploring the moral objections of moral illusion, moral insensitivity and unfair advantage brought against Heileman’s marketing campaign. Within the current market system, it is argued that none of these criticism was clearly justified. Heileman might plausibly claim it was fulfilling its individual moral responsibilities. Instead, Heileman’s marketing program must be viewed as part of a group of marketing programs which all targeted inner-city blacks. It is argued that those marketers who target this particular market segment constitute a group which is collectively responsible for the harms imposed by their products on inner-city blacks. This responsibility is reducible neither to individual responsibility nor to a shared responsibility. It constitutes a dimension of moral responsibility to which marketers must pay attention.

Suggested Citation

  • Brenkert, George G., 1998. "Marketing to Inner-City Blacks: PowerMaster and Moral Responsibility," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:8:y:1998:i:01:p:1-18_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Kelly, Eileen P. & Rowland, Hugh C., 2000. "Ethical and online privacy issues in electronic commerce," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 3-12.
    2. Syed Karamatullah Hussainy & Syed Luqman Hakim & Muhammad Adil Khan, 2014. "Measuring the Correlation between Ethical Dimensions of Advertisement and Development of Society," KASBIT Business Journals (KBJ), Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology (KASBIT), vol. 7(Special I), pages 23-35, May.
    3. Alexei M. Marcoux, 2006. "The Concept of Business in Business Ethics," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 22(Spring 20), pages 50-67.
    4. M. Hyman, 2009. "Responsible Ads: A Workable Ideal," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 199-210, June.

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