Problem
This dilemma comes to us from Monster.com:
Ethical Dilemma: How Far Can You Go in Stealth Marketing?
Scenario: An actor hired by a particular company poses as an ordinary Joe and strikes up a conversation with a potential consumer to praise the company's product or service. Is this fair?
Case Study: Don't think this could actually happen? Think again, says Hartman, who wrote about Sony Ericsson hiring actors posing as tourists to go to the Empire State Building to ask other visitors to take photos of them with the brand's cameras. Then, the actors talked up the product. She cites other examples such as companies having publicity hires write recommendations for goods and services on various Web sites without disclosing their employer. These maneuvers, known as stealth marketing, are a hotly debated topic in the industry.
i. Where do you stand on the ethics of stealth marketing?
ii. What is acceptable and not acceptable to you ethically in stealth marketing?
iii. Describe a time you might have been enticed by a stealth marketing campaign.