Comments on: does good matter?

By: George

George — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:05:10 +0000

Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info

By: jenks

jenks — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:43:21 +0000

rafi – totally true. i thought about that as i was writing this. i guess the bottom line for me about using them as an example wasn’t really to assess whether their good outweighed their bad as far as overall perception, but to examine why they changed their brand messaging entirely. like you said, it is definitely an interesting case study.

By: rafi

rafi — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:04:17 +0000

Good post. American Apparel makes for an interesting case study because for some audiences their sleazy marketing would represent bad ethics (see copyranter’s extended coverage of them for instance).

The question of whether they are doing good, bad or both at the same time depends on the values of the consumer.

By: CT Moore

CT Moore — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:23:31 +0000

The way that Charney throws that book (48 Laws of Power) around is strange. He seems to have missed #3: Conceal Your Intentions.

That being said, I think that Charney’s right about appealing to people’s self-interest rather than their mercy. In fact, I think doing so is the basis for both capitalism and democracy, as well as why both of those out perform communism and totalitarian governments on an international stage.

As much as you convince someone that they have to do something because it’s moral, ethical, or better, you still had to convince them. Their self-interest, rather, is much more like preaching to the choir. So when it comes to selling something, especially fast moving consumer goods, self-interest is alway going to win out over ethical considerations.

That being said, of course, there are some interesting correlations between education/intelligence and self-interest being defined more by long-tail and abstract considerations.