Philip Morris corporate challenges and controversies

Business

Phillip Morris Troubles

This is a review of a case study about Phillip Morris. There is one reference used for this paper.

Introduction number of businesses find themselves facing legal and ethical dilemmas today. It is important to look at the Phillip Morris company and determine not only what moral issues it is dealing with, but also how these issues are concerned with utilitarianism.

Moral Issues

Phillip Morris faces a number of moral issues concerning its activities in the tobacco, beer and food industries. The tobacco division of the company has to contend with knowing their product "causes or contributes to the deaths of about 1000 Americans each day, and an average of five and a half minutes of life are lost for each cigarette smoked (unknown)."

Moral issues faced by the company's beer division include distributing a product which has been shown to cause "long-term effects on internal organs, especially the liver and heart (unknown)." Not only does alcohol affect the body over time, but driving while under the influence of the product can result in the deaths of not only the consumer, but innocent bystanders as well.

The food division of Phillip Morris has been not immune from moral issues. Not only were they producing high-fat and high-cholesterol products, but they were not informing consumers that they were using "new technologies such as irradiation, which was used to preserve foods, and genetic engineering, which was the basis of some of the new crops that its food companies used as ingredients (unknown)."

Utilitarianism

The moral issues facing Phillip Morris can be looked at with an utilitarian point-of-view. Utilitarians are concerned with what is good and what is right. An utilitarian approach to the moral issues facing the tobacco industry would center on the fact that while the company employees over 144,000 workers and therefore is instrumental in aiding unemployment figures, it still produces a lethal product that not only harms the consumer, but those around the consumer. The company has done research on the product and has known for quite a while that tobacco is not only dangerous, it is also addictive as well. Although the company denied knowledge of these facts when first questioned, management personnel eventually admitted to manipulating the addictive nicotine levels.

The beer industry has directed the marketing of malt liquor to "inner-city gang cultures and subtly associated the beer with feelings of being powerful and masterful (unknown)." Malt liquor contains a higher alcohol content, and while the beverage may make a person feel better about him or herself, it can ultimately result in greater incidences of cirrhosis of the liver, gang violence, and drunken driving deaths.

The food industry may be utilizing technology to genetically engineer and preserve its products, however, there is the chance that these procedures could prove harmful. The company also produces foods that taste good due to the high fat content, but these foods contribute to obesity, which is becoming a major health crisis throughout the country.