Integrity requires self-discipline and supervision
Hunter Detective Agency:
Recently, the British media reported two cases in which the parties involved violated the principles of business integrity or Cases of being punished or forced to "return to evil" can't help but make people feel deeply about the British business integrity mechanism.
On November 26, an advertisement by the American fast food chain McDonald's was banned by the British advertising watchdog for providing misleading information. The ad shows a picture of a potato inside a french fries box, with the words "Our French Fries Story (End of Story)" written above it. The ad also said that after selecting different types of potatoes, "we peel it, slice it, fry it, and that's it." This ad received many complaints from consumers. They said that the actual situation is that the French fries provided by McDonald's fast food restaurants are often pre-fried in a certain country until they are half-cooked. Sometimes they are fried into semi-finished products and then soaked in glucose, contaminated with gluten glue, and contain excessive salt. After being frozen, they traveled half way around the world on a plane before being cooked and sold in stores.
Despite McDonald's defense, the British Advertising Standards Authority believes that because of the words "that's it" and "end of story" in the advertisement, the vast majority of consumers will conclude that the company is targeting McDonald's. They showed the conclusion of the whole process of French fries processing, but in fact the actual content of the process of French fries was omitted in the advertisement, which is "misleading".
If the suspicion of deception in McDonald's advertising was corrected by national regulatory authorities, then the resolution of a dispute over Scotch whiskey that ended at the end of November was the result of industry self-discipline. Scotch whiskey has a long-standing reputation around the world, and the key to its success is integrity. The whole story is: in order to increase production, Diageo Company, which accounts for 30% of the whiskey production in Scotland, changed the brewing of "Jiahao" whiskey, which is very popular in the European market, from the original single malt to a mixed malt blend, and Change the word "single malt" on the trademark to "pure malt", but still use the original trademark and pattern.
The company believes that this has been fully explained to consumers and there is no deception. But other whiskey makers believe that this has the effect of deceiving consumers, seriously damaging the image of Scotch single malt whiskey that took 50 years to build, and posing a threat to the entire Scotch whiskey making industry. In the end, Diageo agreed to change the whiskey's old red label to green to distinguish it.
The former is the ruling of the regulatory agency, and the latter is the result of industry self-regulation. In fact, this all depends on the government’s strict regulations. For example, on December 8, the UK Department of Trade and Industry announced major changes to the 30-year-old consumer credit law, banning confusing credit promotions in credit services and cracking down on deceptive practices that mislead consumers into credit traps. A "White Paper on Consumer Credit" published by the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that the revised credit law will require lenders to provide more standard information, making it easier for consumers to compare among different credit options, while empowering the national fair trading watchdog - Fair Trading - Powers to penalize improper credit and conduct surprise inspections of credit companies, among other things.
At least two conclusions can be drawn from the above examples: First, even in a society like the UK with a well-established integrity mechanism, government regulatory authorities still need to continuously formulate targeted policies in a timely manner based on new situations. Sexual measures require more invisible supervision by the social credit mechanism and self-discipline by the industry. Secondly, when some companies promote and promote their products, in the face of mature consumers who know how to protect their own interests, any self-smart, side-stepping or misleading will not be able to get away with it.
Of course, there will be violators of any written or unwritten rules, and there will be those who will test the law no matter how strict it is. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the British Financial Services Authority, the Office of Fair Trading and other regulatory authorities in various industries frequently expose and punish bad behaviors such as fraud and malpractice, and it is also why government departments and the market themselves need to work on integrity. Deliberately guide and cultivate, supervise and punish.