Premium Essay

Pepsi Unethical Behavior

In:

Submitted By zelalumran
Words 509
Pages 3
Hi Tavares, this is not the first time Pepsi Company is associated with unethical behavior. I can recall in year 2007 Pepsi was involved with false advertizing. Pepsi was selling its Aquafina brand of bottled water under the assumption that Aquafina is sourced from mountain spring water. Although the bottle itself did not have the words “spring water”, Pepsi used a great marketing gimmick to deceive consumers. Aquafina brand was sold in a bottle with a clean, blue label showing images of snow-capped mountains and the claim, "Pure water, perfect taste". That's the image created by PepsiCco's Aquafina brand of water, and many consumers leaped to the incorrect conclusion that Aquafina is sourced from mountain spring water. In reality, Aquafina comes from tap water, the same water we get when we turn on our kitchen faucet. Of course, Aquafina is filtered, purified and perhaps even enhanced with trace amounts of added minerals, but it's certainly not mountain spring water, it's just processed tap water, nothing more. PepsiCo only agreed to the truth on their bottled water labels after being pressured by Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organization that helps protect consumers from corporate abuse. PepsiCo bottled water issue brought to light the apparent deceptive practices of some of the largest suppliers of bottled water products. By avoiding the honest labeling of the source of their water while relying on snow-capped mountain imagery, these companies quietly mislead consumers into thinking their water products were from a pristine, natural source such as a mountain spring. Corporate Accountability International rallied consumers from around the world to complain to PepsiCo about their labeling of Aquafina, and thousands of consumers slammed PepsiCo's phone lines so hard that the company was forced to shut down call center operations.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Pepsi Ethical and Unethical Conduct

...------------------------------------------------- ethical AND UNETHICAL practices of pepsi Class: BBA Hon’s Semester: 6th Topic: Ethical and unethical conduct of pepsi in different countries Submitted to: Madam Mehwish Name of Participant: Mubashir Irshad Safeer Hashim Usama Fiyyaz Shahriyar Shahid ACKNOWLEDGMENT Alhamdulillah first and foremost, we would like to thank God as finally we were able to finish our assignment. Secondly we would like to thank to our supervisor of this assignment, Sir Mehwish for the valuable guidance and advice. He inspired us greatly to work in this assignment. His willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously to our assignment. We also would like to thank him for showing us some example that related to the topic of our assignment. This research assignment would not have been possible without the support of many people especially group members; Mubashir, Safeer, Usama and Shahriyar for sharing the literature and invaluable assistance. Without helps of the particular that mentioned above, we would face many difficulties while doing this Introduction of Pepsi Co. International: Mr. Caleb Bradham a young pharmacist from New Bern, North Carolina City. In January 1898, this was the starting period of Pepsi-cola. Caleb Bradham created a drink, which is call "the Brad Drink". In 1903 Brad index the name drink Pepsi. At Marco level he ongoing his own produced and build his own organization. The trade extended and this drink...

Words: 2062 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Ethics in Pepsico

...ETHICS-COMPANY PEPSICO Ethics Business ethics is the accepted set of moral values and corporate standards of conduct in a business organization. These standards of business behavior promote human welfare and the good. Business ethics are exhibited both as written and unwritten codes of moral standards that are critical to the current activities and future aspirations of a business organization. They can differ from one company to another because of differences in cultural perspectives, operational structures and strategic orientations. Therefore, different people have different beliefs about what constitutes ethical behavior. The law defines what is or not legal, but the distinctions between moral right and wrong are not always so clear. In many situations lines between right and wrong are blurred. Such situations can be helped to be cleared by using organization written codes and/or policies. Through the usage of auditors, ethics classes, written codes and policies, numerous companies have reinforced their business ethics and best practices to ensure that fraudulent activities are prevented. The food and beverage sector of the economy has faced increasing pressure from consumers to provide transparency on the sources and operations related to their products. Responsible and ethical procurement is especially challenging for food and beverage, because agricultural commodities typically rely on low-cost labor inputs and environmentally-damaging technology and practices in order...

Words: 4416 - Pages: 18

Premium Essay

Ethics

...workforce. Ethics can have positive or negative outcome, therefore managers must decide on what action to take in various situations. It is important that organizations encourage ethical behavior because it plays a key role to creditability and leads to an increase of support in the workplace. In this essay, it will discuss managing ethics in the workplace, examples of unethical behaviors, and the key roles and responsibilities in ethics management. Managing Ethics in the Workplace In regard to managing ethics in the workplace, managers tend to focus on deliverables with measurements. For example, ethics programs can include deliverables such as codes, policies and procedures, budget items, training, or newsletters, these practices are implemented because they create appropriate behaviors. An important factor to management practice is the outcome of the behavior preferred by the organization. The ingredient for remaining ethical is trying to be ethical. Therefore, in managing ethics in the workplace, managers and employees should continue to reach company goals and operate ethically. Organization leaders play an important role in leading by example. Leaders should always present themselves in the way they want their followers to be. Examples of Unethical behaviors Unethical behaviors can lead to many legal action against organization and cause the organization to spend out tons of unnecessary money for legal fees,...

Words: 797 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ethical Consumerism

...sourcing of products. Unlike in the past decades when consumers were generally ignorant of the information regarding what was being offered to them, today the consumers are more individualistic and informed. A short opinion survey conducted among a sample of 13 students from GSM London to assess the factors that impact consumer behavior have shown that two-thirds of the respondents lean towards the assessment of a firm’s ethical marketing process before making a decision to buy from such a company. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Introduction 4 An overview and analysis of ethical consumerism 4 Review of Pepsi Co Inc Company 6 Result of the Short Opinion Survey 8 Conclusion 10 Recommendation 10 Reference 11 Appendix 13 Introduction Ethical consumerism is growing in significance influencing customer choices as well as increasing the role played by the social movement in the marketing process (Buechler, 2010, p.13). New unfolding and ethics are pushing customers to participate actively in market participation and also to criticize the market process and retreat from it. This paper will focus on the analysis of factors that influences consumer behavior through an opinion survey conducted among thirteen students at GSM London. The study also focuses on the identification of products deemed to fall within the ethical category. In addition, the paper also analyzes a case study of PepsiCo, with a view to identifying ways in which it applies ethical issues in its business. It...

Words: 2904 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Legal Considerations

...Legal and Ethical Considerations By Jennifer Farlow Mar 18, 2015 LEG 500 I. Intellectual Property is the work product of the human mind. Novels, paintings, computer programs, songs, and inventions are all examples. IP differs from other kinds of property in several ways. While often expensive and time consuming to generate, intellectual property can be quickly and easily copied. The legal framework that protects intellectual property has evolved over the years, as lawmakers have sought to promote commercial progress and enrich culture by rewarding inventors and creative people for their efforts. A person can create an original work fixed on a physical medium; the work automatically becomes the copyright owner. Copyright ownership, operation specific work in specific ways to the owner of an exclusive right to the use of data. This paper will discuss intellectual property and the ethical and legal restraints in respect to marketing and advertising (book citation). II. Various surveys conducted from 1990 with the most important ethical problems faced by businesses are to determine what are these problems. Armstrong (1990) in a study conducted by the Australian international business managers was asked to indicate the most serious ethical problems such as corruption, cultural differences, pricing practices, gifts and nonconforming products. From Advertisements undisputed impact on the community is increasing day by day. The advertisements aim to influence consumers...

Words: 1166 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Leg 500 Assignment 3

...2013 1. Research three to five (3-5) ethical issues relating to marketing and advertising, intellectual property, and regulation of product safety. With the globalization in world economy, business ethics became indispensable neces- sity for companies. Business to business ethics of appropriate behaviors in the long term success of businesses in a positive direction, otherwise it has been the power to adversely affect the behavior. As a result, the collapse of ethical scandals have emerged released in the United States of America and Europe. Business, which clearly indicates the necessity and importance of business ethics ethics have valuable lessons from the collapse. Ethical issues at Marketing Nowadays, marketing ethics, ethical issues comes up with sales-related studies and sensitivity in the community. This aspect of the business from a societal perspective should insist on the importance of ethical practices. As a result of marketing activities by the community due to the high impression, often come up with moral problems in the advertising, personal selling, market research and international marketing issues are seen to be available to unethical behavior. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, various scandals in the international arena, large-scale corruption in the agenda for the international marketing have led to the examination of moral side. On ethics in international marketing done most of the work is said to be still in bribes. Various surveys conducted...

Words: 2291 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Pepsico

...Indian Ethos and Values Ethical Dilemmas faced by Pepsi Co. INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY, GURGAON SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO: Swati Khandelwal Ms. Monica Bhardwaj PGPM (2012) (Module Leader) Executive Summary: This assignment is all about the business ethics and ethical dilemma. I have taken a case of PepsiCo. It is a high brand company. When it was heavily criticized about pesticides in soft drink. PepsiCo has to take the decision whether to continuously earn profit and not think about the society, their customer who believes more of that company or to think what can be done under that issue to resolve it, taken as their morale values and ethics into consideration. After study about the decision and their impact I analyses that the decision taken by the PepsiCo at the time of Ethical dilemma and the impact of the company is for the benefit of the society and the Stakeholders. INTRODUCTION Ethics and ethical Dilemma Ethics concern attempt to distinguish ‘right’ from ‘wrong’, ‘good’ from ‘bad’, and what constitutes desirable conduct in a particular set of circumstances (Ghosh, 2006). The concept of ethics comes from the Greek word, “ethos” that means both an individual’s character and a community’s culture. In the...

Words: 2602 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Who's Bad

...June 25, 2009, as a homicide. Forensics test found a potent anesthetic drug called propofol with at least two sedatives that Dr. Conrad Murray had given Mr. Jackson and caused his death (msnbc.com news services 1). Basically the propofol is what finally made his heart stop along with the other given sedatives. It is said that every since the infamous Pepsi Cola commercial accident 1984, when Mr. Jackson's hair caught fire, that he has been addicted to prescription drugs (Smith 1). Mr. Jackson also had many cosmetic surgeries done in the 1990's; as many as 10 to 12 per year, according to Dr. Wallace Goodstein, who worked beside Jackson's surgeon in the 1990's. He also states that Mr. Jackson had many surgeries that were inappropriate and not needed. Therefore he had to get reconstructive surgeries done to reform his nose, because the previous surgeries made his nose too small. He then went to Dr. Arnold Klein who became his dermatologist and helped fix Mr. Jackson's nose with more operations (Triggs 1). So by doing all these procedures the doctors were giving him even more pain killers and creating a monster. If this behavior did start in 1984, that would be twenty five years worth of taking pain killers. After a person has been on medications for that extensive of time they build up a tolerance to the drug, therefore they will need to...

Words: 1108 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Acc 290 Week 5

...PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ACC 290 Week 5, 1- The control environment is the basis of the entire control system that the organization is establishing. The control environment is the value that is placed on integrity and the knowledge that unethical activity will not be tolerated. It is management’s responsibility to express behavior and attitude that enforces this ethical behavior. The control environment affects the internal control by setting a basis of control activities that safeguard assets, enhance accounting reliability, increase 2- The controls that should be in place to protect a merchandiser in a cash rich environment are – Establishment of responsibility Segregation of duties Documentation procedures Physical controls Independent internal verification 3- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires that all publicly traded U.S. corporations are required to sustain a satisfactory structure of internal controls. In addition to internal controls each organization must be able to confirm their compliance by an independent outside audit. SOX came about because of public outrage to lack of corporate integrity and accounting dishonesty. Major corporations such as Enron and WorldCom were dishonestly reporting accounting figures to investors and such dishonesty led to the major losses in investor’s money. SOX requirements have improved Assignment BE5-1 Sales: $181,500 Cost of goods sold: $41,200 Gross profit: $38,000 Operating expenses: $17...

Words: 466 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Acc 290 Week 5

...ACC 290 WEEK 5 A+ Graded Tutorial Available At: http://hwsoloutions.com/?product=week-5 Visit Our website: http://hwsoloutions.com/ Product Description PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ACC 290 Week 5, 1- The control environment is the basis of the entire control system that the organization is establishing. The control environment is the value that is placed on integrity and the knowledge that unethical activity will not be tolerated. It is management’s responsibility to express behavior and attitude that enforces this ethical behavior. The control environment affects the internal control by setting a basis of control activities that safeguard assets, enhance accounting reliability, increase 2- The controls that should be in place to protect a merchandiser in a cash rich environment are – Establishment of responsibility Segregation of duties Documentation procedures Physical controls Independent internal verification 3- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires that all publicly traded U.S. corporations are required to sustain a satisfactory structure of internal controls. In addition to internal controls each organization must be able to confirm their compliance by an independent outside audit. SOX came about because of public outrage to lack of corporate integrity and accounting dishonesty. Major corporations such as Enron and WorldCom were dishonestly reporting accounting figures to investors and such dishonesty led to the major losses in investor’s money. SOX requirements...

Words: 490 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Coca Cola

...The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises 1. Delineate the ethical issues and dilemmas (as found in Chapter 3) the company faced. In 1999 Coca-Cola started to encounter its first taste of ethical issues and all the baggage that is associated with it. One of the first challenges that Coca-Cola was confronted with was an environmental problem in some of its foreign markets which lead to health issues. After drinking some Coca-Cola products, around thirty two children in Belgian became ill. Once Coca-Cola ascertained that problem was derived from an inferior batch of carbon dioxide. For whatever reasons, Coca-Cola assumed this wasn’t a real health hazard and procrastinated on mentioning the issue. Coca-Cola would pay a heavy price because once the media learned of the problem; they chastised them for their slow reaction. The negative news became damaging to the Coca-Cola reputation. To make matters worse for Coca-Cola, France claimed that in excess of a hundred people became ill after consuming their products and the country banned all the Coca-Cola products until they could prove that the problem was solved. In Poland, Coca-Cola introduced a new product called Bonaqua. Unfortunately the Bonaqua arrived in Poland infected with mold. In essence, Coca-Cola’s reputation became tarnished because of its slow response time and failure to address the health risk associated with each situation. Also in the spring of 1999 Coca-Cola was faced with a massive Discrimination...

Words: 1605 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Legal and Ethical Consideration in Marketing

...athlete and movie star promotes this latest product. For example, Pepsi, and always uses high profile athletes or famous people to promote its product. These ads provide a sublime message. These Ads are gear to get the consumer to buy their product. In order for me to be like LeBron James, I have to drink Gatorade. There has been a major shift over the last couple of years in product safety. According to Chandra, “product safety has become a major problem for businessmen, consumers and the government” (Chandran, 1979). Advertising can be both influential and persuasive. It presents an issue of product safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission threatened to ask Congress to give it greater authority. Advertising is protected under the First Amendment, but there has to be limits. “While advertising does not directly contribute to all product related accidents, it does, inadvertently, have the power to promote unsafe behavior” (Chandran, 1979). Advertising indirectly contributes to the problem of consumer product safety. “Advertisers and advertising agencies should therefore do more to educate consumers in a safe and prudent use of products that are potentially hazardous for several reasons” (Chandran, 1979). There should be some guidelines for product safety in adverting policies. The National Advertising Review Board presented its findings, and gave some positive ideas that will influence the safety behavior of consumers. Manufacturers are liable when a product has a defective...

Words: 2321 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Legal and Ethical Consideration in Marketing

...athlete and movie star promotes this latest product. For example, Pepsi, and always uses high profile athletes or famous people to promote its product. These ads provide a sublime message. These Ads are gear to get the consumer to buy their product. In order for me to be like LeBron James, I have to drink Gatorade. There has been a major shift over the last couple of years in product safety. According to Chandra, “product safety has become a major problem for businessmen, consumers and the government” (Chandran, 1979). Advertising can be both influential and persuasive. It presents an issue of product safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission threatened to ask Congress to give it greater authority. Advertising is protected under the First Amendment, but there has to be limits. “While advertising does not directly contribute to all product related accidents, it does, inadvertently, have the power to promote unsafe behavior” (Chandran, 1979). Advertising indirectly contributes to the problem of consumer product safety. “Advertisers and advertising agencies should therefore do more to educate consumers in a safe and prudent use of products that are potentially hazardous for several reasons” (Chandran, 1979). There should be some guidelines for product safety in adverting policies. The National Advertising Review Board presented its findings, and gave some positive ideas that will influence the safety behavior of consumers. Manufacturers are liable when a product has a defective...

Words: 2321 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Ethics and Compliance

...Pepsi Co. Ethics and Compliance In this paper, Team E will analyze PepsiCo’s 2008 and 2009 annual reports and SEC filings. This analysis will help to assess the role of ethics and compliance in PepsiCo’s financial environment by describing the procedures that PepsiCo has put in place to ensure ethical behavior and identifying the processes PepsiCo uses to comply with the SEC Regulations. Then the annual reports will be used to evaluate PepsiCo’s financial performance for the last two years. The ratios that will be used to calculate PepsiCo’s financial performance will be Return on Sales, Asset Turnover, Assets-to-Equity, Return on Equity using the DuPont Framework, and Days Sales Outstanding. These ratios will help discover trends that will determine the financial health of PepsiCo. Ethical Procedures The number of issues Ethics and Compliance Officers in a company face is substantial. The issues range from sexual harassment to data protection and privacy. The Supreme Court and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) hold organizations responsible for the unethical conduct of their employees. Most companies implement a solid Ethics and Compliance Program to prevent employees from engaging in unethical behavior. Ethics and Compliance Programs are also in place to protect Stakeholders interest as well. Every year, Ethisphere Magazine honors companies who go well beyond just making statements about doing business ethically. These honorees put their...

Words: 1660 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Pepsi Business Ethics

...meaning of business ethics, they often wonder what major companies do to stay ahead of the curve, and excel in the area of business ethics. Sadly, it seems as if the general media is only interested in companies with poor business ethics and practices. Media outfits are able to sell more papers, and gain more viewers, and honest companies such as PepsiCo never get the positive publicity that they deserve. Ethics and compliance are present in PepsiCo’s day to day operations. PepsiCo also has procedures in place to ensure ethical behavior for both their employees, and the company as a whole. Next, one must take a look at processes within the organization PepsiCo employs to comply with SEC regulations. Finally, the financial statements of PepsiCo will be analyzed with the intent of looking into the trend for different ratios and what it tells investors, and the public alike about the organization’s financial health. In a world that is filled with unethical companies that are lying to their investors, employees, and the public, it is encouraging to still have companies like PepsiCo that are both ethical and compliant. PepsiCo goes to great lengths to attain economic success while still complying to the unwritten laws of business ethics. PepsiCo does this based on three main elements of influence:...

Words: 1649 - Pages: 7