Social Responsibility: Bank of America, Kraft, Toyota
Judge the actions of these companies as either legal and unethical, legal and ethical, illegal and ethical, or illegal and unethical? Support your judgments for each company selected.
Bank of America
After receiving $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, Bank of America sponsored a fieve-day carnival-like event outside the 2009 Super Bowl stadium called the NFL Experience. The high-profile attraction included 850,000 square feet of sports games, plus marketing solicitations for football-themed B of A banking products. The bank defended the event as effective growth strategy, while critics blasted it an an abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Kraft
As obesity among kids spirals out of control, Kraft has taken a brave stand: a pledge to stop advertising unhealthy - yet highly profitable - foods to young children. Kraft also plans to eliminate in-school marketing and drop some unhealthy snacks from school vending machines. As the king of the food business, Kraft has chosen what's right for kids over what's right for its own short-term profits.
Toyota
In 2009 Toyota stonewalled for months before admitting to a defect in some of its most popular cars that appeared to cause fatal accidents due to unintended acceleration. Even after announcing a large-scale recall, Toyota waited five days before halting new sales on models affected by the recall. Some analysts believe that Toyota knew about the defects long before the probllems began and opted to do nothing.