The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty - Pearson

Part 1 Marketing nowA way must be found to restore a balance between private and public goods. One option isto make producers bear the full social costs of their operations. Governments are also requiringcar manufacturers to build cars with even more safety features and better fuel efficiency. TheEuropean Commission’s end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive already makes manufacturerspay for the cost of scrapping the cars they make. Car makers raise their prices to cover extracosts. If buyers found the price of some cars too high, however, the production woulddecline, and demand would move to those producers that could support both the privateand social costs.A second option is to make consumers pay the social costs. For example, highway authoritiesaround the world are starting to charge ‘congestion charges’ in an effort to reduce trafficcongestion.Countries such as Norway, the UK, France, Singapore and the US are managing traffic withvarying tolls. For example, to unclog its streets, the city of London now levies a congestioncharge of £10 (€15) per day per car to drive in an eight-square-mile area downtown. Thecharge has not only reduced traffic congestion by 30 per cent, it raises money to fund London’spublic transportation system. In southern California drivers are being charged premiums totravel in under-used car pool lanes. For example, San Diego has turned some of its HOV(high-occupancy vehicle) lanes into HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes for drivers carrying toofew passengers. Regular drivers can use the HOV lanes, but they must pay tolls ranging from$0.50 (€0.37) off-peak to $4.00 (€3) during rush hour. Peak surcharges are being studied forroads around other American cities. Economists point out that traffic jams are caused whendrivers are not charged the costs they impose on others, such as delays. If the costs ofdriving rise high enough, consumers will travel at non-peak times or find alternativetransportation modes. In Singapore, drivers are charged for every move they make in thecity state’s central business district and the licence to buy a car on taxes makes the cost ofcar ownership several times European levels, yet people still drive classy Mercedes. ‘Make’em pay’ is part of making car drivers pay their full social cost but, whatever the price, peopledrive on. 18Cultural pollutionCritics charge the marketing system with creating cultural pollution. Our senses are assaultedconstantly by advertising. Commercials interrupt serious programmes; pages of ads obscureprinted matter; billboards mar beautiful scenery; spam fills our e-mail inboxes. These interruptionscontinuously pollute people’s minds with messages of materialism, sex, power or status.Children’s constant exposure to advertising, the protectionists argue, creates mercenary kids,experts in ‘pester power’, who force their downtrodden and beleaguered parents into spendingenormous sums of money on branded goods and the latest crazes. Although not everyone mayfind advertising overly annoying (some even think it is the best part of television programming),a recent study noted that 65 per cent of consumers feel bombarded with too many marketingmessages, and some critics call for sweeping changes. 19Marketers answer the charges of ‘commercial noise’ with these arguments. First, they hopethat their ads reach primarily the target audience. But because of mass-communication channels,some ads are bound to reach people who have no interest in the product and are therefore bored82