Brewing Company Case

The series of ethical decisions began with the initial decision by the Heileman Brewing Company to enter the malt liquor market. The company had done extensive research to determine the consumer’s direction but also to figure out what marketing had been effective in that segment. The company knew about the previous advertising campaigns the competitors had used and decided to model that behavior because it had been influential and profitable. There was little doubt that the marketing was targeting a particular demographic to drink a larger alcohol by volume beverage than was typically consumed by other demographic segments of the beer market. The philosopher Alan Gewirth called these types of actions “transactions” and noted that “there are many kinds of transactions but morally relevant transactions are those where what is affected is the recipient’s freedom and well-being.” Negative transactions can be recognized when “one person coerces another, hence preventing him from participating purposefully or with well-being in the transaction.” Advertising with the intention of influencing a specific group of people to drink a higher volume of alcohol may qualify as such a negative transaction. That decision is compounded by selecting a particularly disadvantaged group to influence which might be perceived as exploiting that group for profit. Although the company was in the business of selling alcohol products to the public in the context of Contractarianism the company had a responsibility to operate within the social contract that considers the fair treatment of minorities. Perhaps in the beginning the company was not aware its campaign was going to violate the social contract. It may have rationalized its behavior as in line with previous uncontested campaigns for similarly placed products. However, when the campaign was introduced it “stirred up a storm of controversy from minority advocates and alcohol foes” and this was an early indicator of an ethical breach. The company could have taken immediate action to address the concerns of the protest groups and modified the product or