Procter & Gamble and Peta Case Study

Canadian Headquarters, Toronto, Ontario

$$What$$s that?$$ you wonder as you look out your window. A small group of people is gathered on the sidewalk in front of the main headquarters of Procter & Gamble. If you squint, you can see they$$re holding signs, but the only text you can make out is the word $$PETA$$ in big letters across the bottom. $$Just great,$$ you think to yourself.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal$-$rights group more commonly known by the acronym PETA, raises more than $$43$ million a year from its $5$ million members and supporters worldwide. PETA not only campaigns for animal rights but also encourages lesser known animal$-$rights groups to engage in activism. PETA is adept at organizing highly publicized, aggressive media campaigns and consumer boycotts. Its public relations tactics include celebrity endorsements; travelling displays of animal abuse; and creative, sometimes controversial, on$-$site demonstrations. In direct response to targeted PETA campaigns, large international companies such as McDonald$$s$,$ Burger King, and KFC issued humane animal handling guidelines to their suppliers of beef, pork, and chicken and now enforce those standards with unannounced audits of production farms and processing plants.

PETA is unafraid to use crude marketing, and has in fact embraced the tactic: In one instance, a viral ad featuring scantily clad women with cow udders instead of breasts was distributed in the UK as part of a campaign against milk drinking and production. PETA had hoped to air a television version of the ad on the ABC network in the United States during the Super Bowl but was told the execution $$falls outside boundaries of good taste.$$ Mimicking television shows like Girls Gone Wild, in which women are encouraged to disrobe for cameras, PETA$$s $$Milk Gone Wild$$ ad shows models dancing in a bar, surrounded by men drinking glasses of milk. When the women tear off their tops, they expose cows$$ udders. In another instance, PETA successfully launched a six$-$year campaign of intimidation against the owners, staff, and suppliers of a farm that bred guinea pigs for scientific research. PETA$$s tactics, denounced as mob rule by some in the medical research community, included hate mail, malicious phone calls, death threats, fireworks, a pedophile smear campaign, car vandalism, arson attacks, and finally the theft of the remains of a relative of the farm owner from the churchyard cemetery. It is clear that PETA will do almost anything to achieve its goals.

Procter & Gamble $($P&G$)$ does not use animals to test the safety of its cosmetics$,$ shampoos, detergents, cleansers, and paper goods. It does, however, use animals to test the safety of new drugs, health care products, and products intended for use on babies and children. PETA protests this animal testing through their $$Died$$ advertising campaign, a play on P&G$$s best$-$selling $$Tide$$ laundry detergent. The $$Died$$ ad shows a woman holding a box of $$Died$$ detergent with the words $$Thousands of Animals Died for Your Laundry$$ boldly written on the box. PETA is urging consumers to boycott P&G products until the company ends all forms of animal testing.

From P&G$$s perspective, eliminating animal testing altogether could compromise consumer safety; animal testing is widely accepted as critical step in ensuring the safety and efficacy of new drugs and health care products. P&G has to know, for example, that a new product works as intended, with no unexpected side effects, interactions, or complications. P&G must ensure that new products will not cause illness or injury to children if accidentally swallowed, or if it gets into their eyes. Should a product liability lawsuit ever be filed against the company, the best legal defence would be proof of extensive scientific testing performed on rats and rabbits. Q$/1-$ Is animal testing ethical? Argue both sides of the issue. Q$/2-$ Select and describe three of the ethical principles that managers at P&G might use to examine the animal testing issue, and describe how the potential ethical actions may differ. Q$/3-$ Describe P&G$$s stakeholders and how they may be affected by this scenario. Does P&G have a social responsibility to PETA?