Marketing, Brand Protection, Food Production, Agribusiness & Obesity

Be sure to base your initial post and responses on course materials, 

Discussion #1
1. It has happened to all of us.  You go online to find a hotel for business, or a vacation and you find a hotel that is well located at a very attractive price.  You go through the reservation process, and right on the final page as you are preparing to authorize a charge on your credit card, there appears a charge called a resort fee or a facilities fee as well as taxes on that fee that raise the nightly cost of the hotel room by 30%.  You give in as you have already spent too much time searching for a room and hit the button that charges your credit card.  That is what hotels count on.  The resort fee has become a widespread practice that makes a lot of money for the hotel industry.  Although there are some legal actions and proposed legislation, the practice has not been declared illegal.  Read: https://www.consumerreports.org/fees-billing/the-sneaky-ways-hotels-are-hiding-their-resort-fees/

Do you think the resort fee practice constitutes deceptive advertising?  Why or why not?
Do you think the practice is unethical?  Why or why not?

The Business Ethics Workshop (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation
Chapter 12: The Selling Office: Advertising and Consumer Protection (pages 529-566)
Offensive/Exploitive/Insensitive/Violent—short of illegal

The Most Offensive Urban Outfitters Products to Ever Exist 
Sorry About That: Wells Fargo to End Ads Suggesting Science Over Arts
Update: Hyundai Apologizes For Car Ad Depicting Attempted Suicide
Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue 

False Claims to Making One Healthier, Richer, Younger–illegal

14 False Advertising Scandals That Cost Brands Millions 
Controversial Lollipop Ad Goes Up in Times Square
FTC to Crack Down on Deceptive Weight-Loss Ads
The fall of “anti-aging” skin care
FTC Action Puts Deceptive Marketer Out of the Debt Relief Business
Federal Trade Commission Act Section 5: Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices