Samsung misleading advertisement-A violation of ethics?

Now that smartphones are capable of taking photos that can, in some instances, rival those of DSLRs, companies seem to be getting more and more comfortable swapping actual DSLR photos into their advertising. The problem is, most phone cameras are still far from DSLR quality, so it’s rarely a fair representation. And Samsung is the latest to get busted trying to pass one off.
Acc. To news18 channel.,which says clearly
writer and photographer Dunja Djudjic says that she caught Samsung Malaysia using one of her photos to advertise the portrait mode capabilities of Galaxy A50s, a midrange phone that came out over the summer. Djudjic suspects that Samsung licensed the picture from her through the photo site EyeEm, so payment isn’t necessarily a problem. But Djudjic does say that the photo wasn’t taken with an A50s Instead, it was taken with an (unnamed) DSLR she owns.
Samsung doesn’t state outright that the photo was taken on the A50s but it’s certainly implied by the page it’s on, which is meant to illustrate the phone’s capabilities.But thats clearly unethical and its just a way to fool the customers.
The massive public backlash has resulted in an internal ethics investigation as well as a dent in their public image and samsung's stock price.
Eventually  samsung apologized, explaining that it meant to demonstrate optical image stabilization, not give the impression that it was demonstrating the phone’s camera itself.
"In our enthusiasm, we showed poor judgment by neglecting to include a disclaimer that the video was not shot using a samsung phone ” said koh dong jins, head of media relations at samsung, in a statement. “It was an error and we apologize for the confusion created.”
As studying business ethics,My personal(raghav's)opinion on this is that company is clearly cheating and apologizing on getting caught.There's no confusion regarding that.

Comments

  1. Your unethical part is really impressive and your personal opinion is also impressive

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    1. Thanks Avinash.
      I always like to add my own perspective.

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  2. This is actually very informative. Samsung being such a good and growing company should not cheat and apologies when they are caught. I truly agree with your opinion on this.

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    1. Thanks for your agreement mam. Yes the company should know about the trust which the customer is having and should not repeat this same mistake again

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  3. Your unethical part is really good and personal opinion is impressive

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  4. This article show how we can get misleaded by an advertisement

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    1. Yes adds play with our psychology and gets us to think what product we should buy

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  5. Yes this problem is common with the phone companies but with the brand as big as Samsung one gets guarantee about the quality.Moreover recently many customers complained about the same. Unique thing about your blog is you gave your own aspect about this issue. Very well explained

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  6. Does the company have the process for creating corrective action plans? Please elaborate the process and elements of a corrective action plan.

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    1. Yes the company has the problem for creating corrective action plans.Recently,the company after hearing a lot of criticism stated that they are going to discontinue this smartphone model and they also stated that now on every single advertisement the picture that would be uploaded would be one of those clicked with that Samsung phone only.

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  7. Pratham Trikha
    Well explained Raghav and I absolutely agree on your opinion that company is cheating and giving excuses as well!

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  8. It's really unethical on the part of Samsung.. Being one of the biggest smart phone companies they should not do such practices

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    1. Yes muazam.If companies like Samsung continues to do this practices the trust in customer would perish

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  9. Such an intolerable attitude is least expected from such organization. By the way, I appreciate the fact that you are utilizing your knowledge by giving opinions which actullac sound good.

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  10. It's a superb blog I appreciate your words but here one ques arise if samsung is misleading the customers then also customers buy the Samsung phones how the problem can be solve ..!?

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    1. Thanks babit and yes the question is genuine and customers still buy the phone because some aren't that much aware but according to a recent survey Samsung sales has been cut down by 56% that's huge but the company now is trying to improve the quality to get back on the same path

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  11. Your blog has given clear information about what is going on in samsung company. I appreciate your points.

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    1. Thanks Niharika hope this information was useful

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  13. Very Informative, got to know a lot about the undisclosed side of the company. Keep it up.

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  14. Very well explained about the wrong advertisement and case.Do u think djudic should have been given the credit?

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    1. Yes djudic should have been given the credit because its she who clicked the photo and it's not just the camera but also the skills of a photographer which makes the photo perfect.Moreover that photo wasn't from Samsung phone.So they should give credit .

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  15. Very informative blog and was about to ask what you think about this but gave your own personal aspect on this.But still one question remains that what ethical policy did they violate

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    1. They violated the honesty, promise keeping, loyalty as they lied and weren't loyal to the customers and broke their trust just to get good sales

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  16. I appreciate the way you share your opinion.

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  17. Very nice and informative blog.
    What do you think that how much was the customers cheated and will they ever resume their trust in company

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    1. I think customers was cheated a lot and eventually they lost their trust and intrest in the company.Maybe if company keeps on introducing innovations in their product and doesn't misadvertise then yes people may resume their trust

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  18. Very Informative, got to know a lot about the undisclosed side of the company. Keep it up.

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  19. Nice unethical issues are described well but do you think as Samsung apologized to their mistake they should be forgiven?

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    1. No. not at all they cheated and though they apologized but only when they were caught.They didn't apologized due to their realization but forcefully as they were caught.

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  20. Well explained!! Your blog is very informative... really learned a lot about Samsung

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    1. Thanks for appreciating.I m glad you found this useful

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  21. Useful content.Samsung is one of the world's leading smartphones brand their quality and innovation is known everywhere but such a behavior was least expected when you talk about a brand as big as Samsung.

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    1. Yes. Absolutely this was not what the customers were expecting from a company like Samsung.

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  22. It is really unethical... Samsung is the no 1 market captured company. And they do such type of unethical things. I will surely impacts on the sales

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    1. Yes even it did impacted the sales stats don't lie just after this sale drop of 20% were observed

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  23. Really good content and its also unethical but you wrote your content very good

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    1. Thanks Shivdatt collected data from almost 10 sites.

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  24. Useful information and yes the company being one of the most reputated phone companies should not do this. Do you think this practice is gonna reflect the future sales of company.

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    1. Yes it is gonna effect actually just after this thing came into notice sales drop for samsung by 20%.
      And overall the sale is cut down/dropped by 56%.

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  25. Good content and useful information .
    And this is straight nonsense on the company's part to first advertise and then apologize on being caught.The company should know about the trust which people have developed over the years and should respect the same.

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    1. Thanks for appreciating Abhishek and yes the company should know about their responsibility and commitment towards the customers

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  26. Samsung should have wirtten at the very start with disclaimer:This photo is only for refrence.
    Call it negligence or call it fakeness either way this is unethical and yes I completely agree with your personal opinion

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