Arthur's Day check-in on facebook donations

ShoulderChip · 20-09-2011 5:47pm #1

So if u check in to any bar on arthurs day on facebook guiness will donate 5euro to a charity

What do people think of this?

On one hand it is absolute marketing genius, i'm sure guinnes have a charity budget and they are confident they wont surpass it with this.

Aside from this im sure they plan on advertising how much they paid charities at some point in the future, this is probably in their plan already.

What im saying is I believe they were going to donate x amount of money anyway w/o people going through this excercise

So is it ethical to flaunt it like this?
Or is that surpassed by the enhanced awareness the charity will get as a result, although it wil prob be a subset of the enhanced awareness guinnes will get.

Which is nobler, to discreetly donate,

Or to donate in such a public manner?

If opt a they donated y money discretely and option b they donated x money publicly

How much greater would x have to be than y (and it can be less than) for the two acts to be ethicaly equivalent?

Saila · 20-09-2011 5:53pm

ShoulderChip wrote: »

How much greater would x have to be than y (and it can be less than) for the two acts to be ethicaly equivalent?

x/y x square root of c = awesommeness

TheZohanS · 20-09-2011 5:53pm

You can fake your "check in", there's an app for it.

Kevin Duffy · 20-09-2011 5:59pm

They're a business, their aim is to make money. They have to do it legally, but after that I have no expectations of them so the ethics of donate secretly v publicly don't trouble me. If they use their donations for publicity, it's the same money to the charity and they'd have advertised to me some other way. No real losers, the charity gains, I'd call that a win.

Rosedust84 · 20-09-2011 6:07pm

That blew my mind...

mikemac · 20-09-2011 6:07pm

Spend money to make money

It's good publicity for Diageo and they'll make it back and more

And the charity wins too, no harm done

Jaxxy · 20-09-2011 6:09pm

Kevin Duffy wrote: »

They're a business, their aim is to make money. They have to do it legally, but after that I have no expectations of them so the ethics of donate secretly v publicly don't trouble me. If they use their donations for publicity, it's the same money to the charity and they'd have advertised to me some other way. No real losers, the charity gains, I'd call that a win.

I'd have to agree. Whether it's publicly or privately in the end the charity wins and that's the most important point IMO, nobility doesn't necessarily have to come into it. Plus it's good for the publican trade too, and it's the best use I've seen for that ridiculous facebook "check-in" feature so far.