Ethical Considerations for Marketers
Marketing often presents ethical dilemmas that challenge professionals to balance business goals with moral responsibility. These dilemmas can range from issues of privacy and data protection to the truthfulness of advertising claims and the impact of marketing strategies on vulnerable populations. As marketers, we must constantly evaluate our actions and decisions, asking ourselves where to draw the line.
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Lychee SpritzThis week’s cocktail is a refreshing twist on the classic Hugo Spritz, selected with Rich’s taste in mind. It’s a perfect choice for summer and an ideal pick for anyone who loves the delicate, floral sweetness of lychee. Light, crisp and subtly aromatic, this drink brings a bright, modern edge to a warm-weather favorite. |
Ingredients:
- 1 cup ice for serving
- 1 1/2 oz. Lychee Liqueur (We recommend Giffard Lichi-Li)
- 3 oz. Prosecco
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice (about one lime wedge)
- Garnish: 1 slice of lime and 1 sprig of fresh mint
Directions:
- Add ice to a large wine glass.
- Pour over the lychee liqueur.
- Gently pour the prosecco over the glass so you achieve the ombré effect.
- Squeeze in half a teaspoon of lime juice.
- Give one gentle mix and garnish with a slice of lime and sprig of mint.
Recipe credit: https://justinesnacks.com/lychee-spritz/
Episode Transcript
Rich: Hey Zach, you are back for another one, huh? Yep. We, I'm excited. Haven't killed you off yet. Um, and today you've got a fun one for us. 'cause Zach also picks our topics, everybody. So, uh, we're gonna navigate the gray areas of marketing ethics, and I did do my prep. I read through it, and some of these I'm like, eh.
Not so bad. Um, so we'll see. Like, we'll see when we get to it. I'll be curious to see how you think. 'cause we do have a, just a small generational difference here.
Zac: Mm-hmm.
Rich: Are you a millennial technically, or a Gen Z?
Zac: I'm like one of those like very like weird inbetweeners where like, oh, you're a semial. I'm almost old.
I'm almost like old enough to be a millennial, but I'm technically a Gen Z. Got it. I think I relate more to Gen Z surprisingly, but Oh, okay.
Rich: Yeah. You're a xal then, I think is what they're called, like, yeah,
Zac: something like that.
Rich: Um, yeah, my sister's on the cusp of Gen X and Boomer. Like it's a really weird place for her to be, but she's definitely very much more Gen X.
Um. But yeah, very fun. All right, so, um, I think this will be interesting, like looking at ethical dilemmas and we'll see, um, we'll see what I think of those. 'cause that made all these up.
Zac: I created three that I think are pretty realistic. Mm-hmm. They're all
Rich: realistic. Yeah, I would agree with that.
Zac: It's gonna be pretty interesting to see like kind of your thoughts.
I'm very curious on what you think, but, uh, yeah.
Rich: Alright, well I do appreciate the cocktail and this was, uh, your choice cocktail one, right.
Zac: Yeah. So, uh, I guess like before we get into the re I can just give a little bit of background. I was supposed to choose something that was my favorite cocktail, but because of you don't have a favorite, you drink everything
Rich: almost like,
Zac: well, and I was, I was like, trying to think of one, and at first I had a cocktail that I really liked from a specific, uh.
Like me for Mercury in Omaha, but I didn't have the recipe for that. And I was like, you know, like we've been doing all these like, kind of like out there cocktails that are kind of my taste anyways. So I decided to pick one that I thought you'd really like and that I'd really like. So I feel like
Rich: I would, and I do have, I was gonna bring it in here for the video, but I have a can of light cheese still in my pantry.
Um, so yeah, like this doesn't actually have. Any chy or chy juice in it. Yeah. Um, because it's got the Chy Laur, so. All right. Let me give a rundown of that and then, um. You, I guess. Yeah, that's kind of it. Um, it's, it's not overly complicated.
Zac: No, no, it's pretty good too. It's leche
Rich: spritz is the cocktail. Yeah.
And I love a good Aperol spritz. So this is it, it's essentially the same thing with Leche Laur. Mm-hmm. Um, which, uh, you can get Gifford Leche Lee. I'm gonna have to go look for that, which, because I didn't even know there was a leche leche laur.
Zac: Apparently it's made in France, so. Oh, okay. And apparently it gave a little background on Light G too.
It originally, uh, was grown in China, but now mm-hmm. Uh, let's see. Now it is also grown in China, India, Madagascar, and Thailand. I. So, okay. I knew it was high land,
Rich: um, because the Thai use it in like desserts and things. So, uh, cool. All right. So you gotta have the following things. You need a cup of ice for serving, uh, you can measure that or not whatever.
Um, one and a half ounces of leche laur, uh, like Gifford Leche Lee. Uh, three ounces of Prosecco, a half a teaspoon of lime juice, uh, which is about one lime wedge ish. Um. Excuse me. Oh my gosh. One slice lime for serving. I'm just ready to eat it already. Uh, and one sprig of fresh mint. Um. It for serving as well.
It's a really,
Zac: really pretty color. It's like a very light pink.
Rich: Yeah. Um, which is really interesting. So you just put the ice in a large wine glass. Uh, the bigger the better. If you ask me, pour over the lighty, lour. Uh, pour the prosecco over the glass so you achieve the MRE effect. So you'll see in the image for this, um, that it's a little bit like it's lighter on top and a little darker on the bottom.
It's got that pinkish color on the bottom from the liqueur. Um, squeeze, uh, the half teaspoon of lime juice end. So just a little squished there. Uh, give it a quick gentle mix and garnish with a slice of lime and a sprig of mint. Um, you could probably also, um. Toss in. A che if you wanted to. Yeah. Recommend it probably.
Yeah. The only issue I have, 'cause I do lychee martinis at home and you use absolute A pairs vodka, so a pair of vodka with the lychee is really good. Um, the only issue I have is it's like the can has a, like, it's a pretty good sized can and it's got a lot in it. Like, and if you don't make a bunch, they don't keep for very long.
Mm. Um, so you
Zac: kind of gotta make a lot of martinis to. Get the full use out of it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rich: I do like this because the lights of the record is gonna last, so mm-hmm. That will be, uh, pretty good.
Zac: And this recipe's from, uh, justine snacks.com. Uh, she is a recipe developer and editor, and also a bread enthusiast according to her website, so make sure to check that out.
Rich: All right, well cool. Um, I wish I had all this stuff and I would go make one and bring it back with me, but, um, I guess we'll just take a break and get into your gray areas of ethical marketing.
Zac: Sounds good.
Rich: Alright, we are back and Zach is going to hit me with some ethical scenarios. Yep. And I'll give you my opinion and we'll talk about 'em. We'll see if you agree with me on what my opinion is.
Zac: All right, let's just get right into it. So you're running a flash sale for a clothing brand. Your marketing team wants to display only three left in stocked, even when it's not true to increase urgency.
So my question to you is, first, like what do you think of that and is it, is it harmless or do you think it's kind of like a little bit,
Rich: I mean, it's, from my perspective, it's kind of stupid. Like, I mean. You know, I don't think that a, like I on Amazon all the time, I see like only two left in stock, which I think is really true for them because you will see stuff go outta stock.
It never really motivates me to buy it, in part because I can usually get stuff somewhere else. Um, so I don't think it's hurting anybody. I just don't know how effective it is.
Zac: No. Yeah. I mean, for me, I think it depends. It depends entirely on what I'm buying, right? So if it's like a shirt. I can probably live without, you know, missing out on it.
But if it's like a concert ticket and it says there's only. 10 left when I really wanna go to a concert. Totally. And that's something, that's something that would definitely motivate me to buy, especially if I had already planned on it.
Rich: Yeah. Like is it a limited thing that if I don't get it now I'm never gonna get it?
Like an experience I think is different than, like you said, an article of clothing or something. Mm-hmm. Um, I think the only other thing would be if it was something that was like a limited edition and there were only 50 of them, um, and you wanted to get one. Yeah. So that might make a difference, but also like.
Just put up the real number on your inventory, like mm-hmm. You don't have to fake it. And I do see this all the time on retail, and there are apps that will do it, and you pick how many left, um, and it'll change like eventually, like it'll, it'll go back to something. It resets, I don't know when. But there's also the ones, and they have these little scrollers that, like Zach Hazen just added this to his cart.
You know, three people just added this to their cart and. I've seen a real module that actually does pull that. Usually I don't use last names because it's a little weird. Yeah. Um, but I've also seen the fake one where it just rolls through with random, fake names about people adding to the cart. So it looks like people are adding to the cart constantly and it's like, oh my God, I should buy this.
And I've had people like, should we put that on the site? And I'm like, no, no.
Zac: Yeah, I would, I would, I would. Honestly, I think I'd prefer it without it, especially if it's fake. If it's something like a concert ticket, like I said, like an experience, like knowing the actual number that is left is really useful.
If they faked a concert ticket, that's much, that would just be a little scummy, I think. Especially like imagine you go to it and it's like not even close to being sold out and then they said it was like three left or something. I don't know. That just rubs me the wrong way.
Rich: Yeah, it is. Um, a little bit wild.
So, I mean. I think that if I see, like, I mean like, so let's just take our t-shirt shop, right for 71 shirts. It's print on demand and so all of our, it does push an inventory over to Shopify from our print on demand source. Um, but it's like 18,000, 19,000 in stock. And so I think putting that up does nobody any good.
No, because it's just like, it's too many. Like, it doesn't, there's no urgency at all in that, and we don't show inventory. Um, and they only do that because they do like discontinue or sell out of specific styles. Um, what's really interesting is they'll, they'll just change it on us. Like they'll just be like, oh, you were doing this but a Canvas shirt and now you're doing this Bella Canvas shirt.
Um, because we just, we, I mean, we do care about the content of it, and we did check to make sure the shirts are soft and they're high quality and all of that. But you know, going from an 80 20 blend to an 85 15 blend or something stupid like that is not a big deal.
Zac: No. Yeah. And honestly, in terms of like an actual, be it actually being like an ethical dilemma, I don't think anyone's gonna like stop buying from you if they figured this out.
Like maybe they'd be like, well that's kind of like a little bit of a scummy thing. But at the same time, like I would recommend against it, but it's definitely not gonna like be detrimental. To your company?
Rich: Yeah, and I think, so ethics, like which, and I've taught like social media ethics, um, and ethics versus laws.
So laws are forced upon us. Ethics are agreed upon by a community. So this one really is what's ethical for your brand may not be the same as what's ethical for another. It's about what your community will tolerate from one another. Um. And that's where it gets a little bit tricky 'cause it's subjective, you know?
So you and I might be like, oh, I wouldn't tolerate this, I wouldn't shop there. But maybe their folks are like, eh, it's fine. You know, they don't really care. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, they joke around a lot. So I think that's where we have to think about these within ethics. Um, 'cause you can talk about the ethics of the marketing community, which they think, where kind of the next one goes.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And some of that and how that works. Um, but yeah, this one, I mean, I don't think if it's, if it's unethical, it's really mildly unethical. It's not more serious. I wanted to start
Zac: with a mild one too, just to get us a little bit in like the mindset of how these are gonna go. Like we, oh yeah. I think the next one, I think the next one's a pretty big, we're up in the level a little bit.
All right, so throw it out there. All right. So a client wants to use AI to resurrect a deceased celebrity for a product ad. The estate has approved it, but public opinion could go either way, and I really do think public opinion could go either way on that. Oh,
Rich: it absolutely could. I mean, so the issue here is like from an ethics standpoint, you have consent, so.
It isn't really an ethical problem. Um, it's ethical
Zac: in a sense of, first of all, who is a celebrity and no true. It de it definitely matters. You know, how they passed, how, like who they were as a person because if you brought somebody back that was very anti-consumerism to sell a product, that could be a very, very big issue.
Yeah. I mean
Rich: it's, it's like musicians when they sell their catalog and have no control and then it, I mean, instantly. S they're shopping it out there for commercial rights and companies who would never do commercials are suddenly in there. Um, yeah, so I mean, it's, it's an interesting one. Um, I think you've got a couple issues here though.
So one is you don't know where public opinion is gonna go, so you might wanna test it. This is gonna be a huge investment to, 'cause you're paying the estate as if that celebrity were there. Biggest ethical concern is do you disclose that this is AI or not? Um, yeah,
Zac: like, I mean, what. Nowadays, you could probably tell like in the time period we're in now, you could probably tell, but in the future, who knows how powerful or like how seamless like AI stuff is gonna be with that.
And like, uh, it's just kind of scary to think about.
Rich: Well, and they've been playing with like the holograms, right? They've been, they did a, um, God, I can't remember who it was, but there was a dead rapper that they, tu Tupac brought hologram. Tupac. Yeah, Tupac. That's what it was, of course. Um, like the quintessential like dead rapper, was that one of em?
Zac: Was that at Coachella or where did they do that at? Like a spec, I thought, I think it was a music festival or something.
Rich: I think so. Like, and it's, so we've been playing with this for a while. I think deep fakes have gotten much better with, um, with AI and with some of the different media tools that we have now.
Um, so yeah, I think that.
Zac: It's very dependent on what you're Yes. Promoting who it is.
Rich: Yeah. And I think you've got a note here, like what if it's for a good cause like cancer research. Mm-hmm. Um, and I think where you run into that is you've gotta really go through a whole bunch of filters on this. Like, okay, would they be aligned with the cause?
Do their relatives or descendants agree that they would be aligned with that? Cause is it something they were involved in before they died? Mm-hmm. Um. And then, yeah, you get into the, you know, how did they die? What was the thing like, you know, bringing back Amy Winehouse who died of a drug overdose. Like that's, I mean, yeah.
You know, bring it back. For what? Like drug prevention and rehab. Like,
Zac: ooh, there's, there's some celebrities that are definitely gonna be like, no, and honestly, like the, to me, I wouldn't recommend doing this at all. Like, it's just, it's just kind of weird. Like after the, after they've already passed. They definitely like can't consent to it.
Yeah. And obviously if their state does, that's another thing. But
Rich: I mean, I think some things though, like bringing back, or not bringing back, I guess you're not really bringing him back, but having like either a hologram or an AI of like Nat King Cole doing a duet with Natalie Cole, like of one of his songs.
Like that would be, I think, okay. And I think they actually did that just with film. Mm-hmm. Like a while back. Um. So that's like one of those where it's like, okay, yeah. Like I think people would likely be okay with this, but I do think you gotta float it. Like focus groups aren't a bad idea with these things.
Like, and really think about
Zac: it, um, because chances are like doing this, you're gonna be making big waves, especially to that celebrities fan base. Oh yeah. And if you have the budget to do something like this, it's gonna be seen almost everywhere, I'm guessing. And honestly, I think the best way that you could possibly utilize this is for like.
A charitable cause of some kind or even like promoting their own foundation that they had or put together when they were alive. Something like that. I don't know. I don't any other way. It just seems weird to me.
Rich: Yeah, it's weird. And they just did something in a movie or TV show that I watched. Um, oh, it was in succession.
Um, yeah, it's in the final SE or this last season of succession, which I think is the final season. Um, the, you know, spoilers if you haven't watched it, but I think it's pretty well known, the patriarch dies and so they, he's recorded this video, like basically lambasting people, like, it's just a horrible video.
So they have all these outtakes 'cause they kept cameras rolling when he was doing promos for things and all that stuff. And one of his kids takes it and puts new voice to it in his voice to promote this like, brand new project he wants to do, um, that nobody was like really on board with. And that didn't even exist when the dad was alive.
Like total deep fake endorsement, like at the first shareholders meeting after his dad's death. Wow. That sounds crazy. Yeah. It, it was a little bit insane. So, um, it's somewhere like middle of the latest season of succession, so, um, yeah, it's insane.
Zac: I honestly feel like we're gonna see a lot of this in like the next five or 10 years, and so I'll definitely be coming back to this after something crazy like
Rich: that comes out.
I do too. I mean, and there's also stuff where like, you know, they used Carrie Fisher as a hologram and a Star Wars thing after she died, but I think that that's in part a little bit different because. One, that whole hologram message thing is a part of their canon, right? Yeah. It's a part of Star Wars canon, the little holograms.
She'd done it before. Um, and I think, didn't she die while they were filming one of 'em? I'm
Zac: pretty sure. Yeah.
Rich: Yeah. And so I think there's that. And then you've also got like, you know, if they need James Earl Jones to voice Darth Vader, like they have all of his words that he said and he's not seen, he's just a voiceover.
Um, and there are rules around that, and there's ways to do that in film and television, I think. When you get to advertising and promoting, it gets really weird instead.
Zac: Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how a lot of that stuff shakes out, especially as AI continues to,
Rich: have you made yourself an AI avatar yet on like, um, no.
Hey, hey, Jen, or one of those? No, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm, maybe I willed. I just am a little like, uh, one, like to do it right. I feel like you've gotta have a green screen, which I do in the basement. I've got one down there that I could pull out of my. My photography stuff, but because you have to move like normally and walk around and stuff, so it gets your gestures and your timing and you read a certain thing to it.
Um. But I just, I just don't wanna do it like in a random, weird place with my iPhone. I'd rather have it be like, if I'm gonna try it, I'm, if
Zac: you're gonna do it, you're gonna
Rich: go all in. Yeah. Yeah. But I think Hagen lets you do one for free. Like you don't even have to pay for it. It might be worth testing out.
Mm-hmm. I mean, then I could just have my avatar do these episodes. Like if the background's ever super clean, you know, it's my avatar, it's not me.
Zac: If I'm starting to talk to an avatar, that'll be definitely interesting.
Rich: It would be a weird episode, wouldn't it? Maybe
Zac: that could be an interesting episode to see how it goes.
It could be. Wow, huh. All right, so number three. This one is, this is the last one I. I feel like this, I don't feel like we have to imagine this one. Like this is just something that happens. It's gross. So during a global crisis, your client was supposed a supportive social message without donating, taking action or actually changing their business practices to align with this, uh, kind of like social movement.
It's purely for optics. So I, this happens all the time. A hundred percent. Uh, it's gross and people see through it.
Rich: So very
Zac: inauthentic. Mm-hmm. We've definitely talked about it before. Where people just like change their profiles. Like, just like for like one cause and then immediately the next day or like the next month, they're completely off of it.
Rich: Yeah. I mean, that's gonna happen here. Uh, in a couple weeks with Pride Month, everybody's gonna have a Rainbow logo. Um, and like it, I think that. So for me, I think your biggest piece here is that they're not really related to it. They don't want to donate, they don't want to be involved in the cause. They don't wanna adjust their business practices.
Um, it's just for optics. Um, that's where you have the issue. I think that if your company like belongs in that cause or that, um, that. Whatever movement. It's the same thing with like celebrities, right? Like with Pepsi and the the Kardashian thing and the Black Lives Matter riots and all that. Um, or protests.
The, um, if you belong there, great. If you don't belong there, just don't do it. Um. It's interesting 'cause we don't ever change our logo on any socials. Like, we don't even do a, we don't do a Christmas logo, we don't do a Halloween logo, an Easter logo, a Pride logo. We don't do any of those, like, we'll post graphics, but we don't change our identity for it.
Um, and it's not that like we don't support some of those things or aren't interested in some of those things. Um, it's just we keep our brand, our brand, um mm-hmm. If we're gonna change the color, it's gonna be one of our brand colors and for a reason, um, not just for, you know. A cause. Yeah.
Zac: You shouldn't be trying to just use like actual causes that are trying to, you know, do something actually good in the world to tap into your target audience.
It's really, really
Rich: scummy and you know, not to get too into politics on the side of it, but you know, you look at what's happening with all these companies like abandoning, DEI, for whatever reasons, and we all know it, we've all seen the news. Um, it's gonna be really interesting when they try to like float a Pride logo.
Like, you know, Florida, like black history month, like message, like you just shut up. You don't belong there. No. And I think that in some of those instances they will get skewed, especially the companies pulling out of like supporting local pride parades and things like that. Like it would be really bad if you pull your money from the organization, but then you like throw up your logo.
Like, no, everybody's gonna see right through that. Um, so I think that with this one. Uh, these performative actions, performative support in whatever the way they are, they're, they're just gross and the community's not gonna, not gonna go for it. I think on this one, most people are aligned on ethics and mm-hmm.
It's,
Zac: it's just gross. And if Caitlin were here, she would. She would've let you know. Oh, we'd have a tangent, I'm sure. Um,
Rich: yeah, they just need to stay in their damn lane for real. Um, like if you're going to speak up and get involved with something, then get involved with it. Put your money where your mouth is.
Yeah. Like Patagonia and conservation, um, you know, some of those where like it makes sense and they stay in it. Um. And ideally find something you can stay in for a long time like that really, really aligns with who you are. Um, but o so gross.
Zac: Yeah, that one is definitely like, uh, ethical dilemma that is everywhere in our industry.
Rich: Yeah. I need, I need a che spritz to rinse my mouth out 'cause I just have a bad taste from all of these. Like,
Zac: me too. Ugh. Um,
Rich: yeah. Ugh. Yeah, sorry, I am just like looking at the notes and shaking my head. Um, yeah, and I know there's probably examples out there. I know we don't have any and we don't really have time, but, uh, people who've done these, like there's a bunch of 'em that come up.
Um, it's just so weird, like fast food gets into stuff too, and I'm like, the things fast food gets into, I'm like, what?
Zac: If it's a national brand, they've definitely been guilty of this.
Rich: Mm-hmm. Oh, McDonald's did a whole healthy eating campaign at one point, and people were like, I don't come there to eat healthy, I don't think this is your talking audience.
It's like, no, you're a guilty pleasure. Not like. My health and nutrition. Yeah, I mean what's really ironic though is like, you know, I was watching what I eat ate for a long time. Um, a while back I was traveling a ton and I figured out like the fries at McDonald's were the worst. Um, because you could do like the a two cheeseburger meal and if you just ate half the fries and had an iced tea, it really isn't that bad on calories or even fat, like, um Oh, interesting.
You know, it's not that bad. You get a lot of the fat and calories from the fries. So what I had to do is I would, and the Quarter Pounder is just a little bit more than two cheeseburgers. Um, but that was kind of like the thing. Um, and the two cheeseburgers I think were less calories than the grilled chicken even.
Like, it was wild. But I would always have to get the fries and like, I would quite literally, like, I'd hold onto the fries and I would grab half of them, and I would throw them in the garbage because it's like the fries are so good. Like, they're like crap. They're addicting. There. So if I, yeah, and if I took all of the fries with me, like to the gator on the plane, I would eat all the fries.
So I would quite literally throw half of them away. Um. It's so wild.
Zac: It's cheap too. Like if you just get cheeseburgers mm-hmm. Like, I'm pretty sure that's on their value menu still. Yep.
Rich: Yeah, it is. Um, and they had a, like a, they've had a buy one get one for a dollar on the value menu. Um, not that I'm a huge McDonald's fan, I eat there like maybe five times a year.
Definitely a guilty
Zac: pleasure for me. Like. I am only feeling it like every so often, but when I'm feeling it, like it definitely is pretty good.
Rich: Yeah. For what it is. So one, one last thought, like on this cause marketing for clout thing. What do you think about like the official whatever of sports teams?
Because I saw like, um, God, what was it like? It was like the official heating and cooling company. Oh my gosh. Of the Huskers or whatever. Like some, okay, I get it. Yeah, you do it. They do have to heat and cool the stadium. I understand that. Like it's gonna make me wanna buy from 'em, but like when you get really outside of being adjacent to that sport, it gets so weird.
Zac: Yeah. I think. The, that's so weird to me because like obviously like a football audience, right? Could be anyone. It's more lean towards like older males, especially like football generally. Yeah. I know what you're saying, like the official plumbing company of the official, like there's some really out, out there ones and I, I think some brands, like you said, are better than others.
Like for example, like there's a distillery near me and they're the official whiskey of the Carolina Panthers and they have like a special whiskey that has like the Panthers logo on it and stuff. I think that's pretty, and can you get the
Rich: whiskey at the stadium?
Zac: I think it's a part of mo of most of their cocktails.
Okay. Yeah. Stuff, that's my thing sense is like,
Rich: if it makes sense for you to be in the stadium, I'm good. Like, that makes more sense to me. But like, you know, the official file cabinet of the, you know, Pittsburgh Steelers, like, I don't care.
Zac: There's like the official, like, I don't even know, hospital of the, uh, NF of the, uh, Carolina Panthers.
It's like, it's just like you're a little bit, it gets a little bit crazy and like outside of like. What you'd expect, and I don't think well.
Rich: And my thing would be, do the athletic trainers come from that hospital? My guess is no. 'cause they're probably employed by the team, but I have seen that where there's like a physical therapy or sports medicine practice that are the trainers for a local team.
Usually it's with like minor leagues.
Zac: Yeah, I've seen that too. I think I've, I saw it with like the bandits in C City once, but Okay. Yeah.
Rich: All right. So whatever the thing, find your lane and stay in it.
Zac: Yeah. Don't go too outside. I mean it. It. I don't know. Like it's, it's such a weird one to me. 'cause it feels like there's so many brands that do that.
Rich: Or do you go so far outside that it's so hilarious. You stand out, it comes back around for you. I don't know. Wow. All right. Well, um, that was an interesting one, Zach. I think those are all like kind of different levels. And I do think the big takeaway from this is it depends, like some stuff is pretty clear, but you really have to look at how it relates to your brand, how it relates to your message, and do you give a shit about whatever the thing is.
Um, because if you don't, like, just, just don't do it, like, makes no sense.
Zac: Yeah. And if it's like a really big ethical dilemma, I think it's really, really important to like consider like what, how you want your company to be portrayed because mm-hmm. Especially with like the AI celebrity one that could go south really fast.
Rich: Yeah. I think when we talked about it with, um. Some of the, like, the trends that people jumped on, I think it was that episode, but like, how bad could it get? Like you really have to think about how bad it could get. 'cause it, I mean, can, it could get to the point where it, it shuts you down, like, um, or really starts impacting your sales.
I mean, boycotts can be a big thing. Mm-hmm. Be cautious.
Zac: Uh, as always, you can find our agency at Antidote seven one, and if you have a question you'd like to send our way, head to CTA podcast live, to shoot us an email, or even better, leave us a voice message on our hotline at 4 0 2 7 1 8 9 9 7 1. Your question will be featured in a future episode.
Rich: Yeah. Uh, I'm thinking of just converting that, uh, that line to like a movie, phone or something like. It'll just tell you what's on Netflix tonight. Um, or what's, what's new on Netflix today? Nobody's calling it. Um, alright, so we do have another episode coming up. Um, it will be another team spotlight, so you will get to hear Caitlyn.
I actually won't be there, uh, because Caitlyn's doing these. So, uh, it'll be Caitlyn and Zach and you'll learn what Zach's go-to drink is. Uh, none of this fancy, crazy tiki stuff. It's what he gets when he goes to a dive bar. So that's gonna be, uh, a good one. Um, and we'll have that for you next week and then, uh, more stuff after that.
So go out there and be ethical people. Just be ethical.