What Commercials Taught Me

Here's a great TED talk by Rory Sutherland on the lessons he's learned as an advertiser:


I'd like to teach an entire class on TED talks. Some of my other favorites:

• The Story Bias by Tyler Cowen
  
• My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
  
• We Don't Know What Makes Us Happy by Dan Gilbert

After a Word from Our Sponsors

Here are some links on advertising and reasoning.

• The first is about the underlying intellectual dishonesty in even the most honest of ad campaigns.
  
• By the way, if you're into advertising, that entire blog is great. I'm a bit biased, though, since I used to work with the guy who writes it.
• Here's a radio interview with the director of FactCheck.org, a great website devoted to debunking claims in political ads.
• I also used to work with the guy who interviewed FactCheck's director. Yup, I'm a pretty big deal.
• I wish those fact checking websites made a difference. Actually, I just wish they didn't hurt their own cause. Silly humans and your naturally biased minds!
  

Finally, here's a Saturday Night Live skit on the distortions of political ads:

BS

Want to learn more about bullshit? A philosopher has written a book on it! You can buy Harry Frankfurt's book On Bullshit here... or read it online for free here. Or, be lazy and watch Frankfurt's appearance on The Daily Show.


Some more interviews with Frankfurt about the book are here and here. What do you think? Is not caring about whether you're telling the truth worse than deliberately lying?

"Barb" on My Nametag

Barbara Ehrenreich is famous enough to be on the tv a lot. Here's her appearance on The Colbert Report (she even drops some Wal-Mart references):



And here's a recent clip of Ehrenreich on The Daily Show talking about her new book on how wishful thinking has run amok:

Extra Credit: Mom's Clippings

Here's the email my mom sent me today:

To: Sean Landis
From: Momma Landis
Date: Wed, Nov 18, 2009 12:26 pm

Walmart.com has a Sauder TV cart in brown or black for $24. You can have it shipped site to store for free. Pretty good price, I think.

mom

Actually, since I started teaching business ethics last year, my mom has sent me a bunch of articles that she thinks would be helpful for the class. So I thought I'd use her gifts to create an optional extra credit assignment (due at any time).

Below are links to these articles. (As you can see, she reads a lot of Newsweek.) The assignment is to write a short (about one-page) response to one of these articles. The response should include the following:

• A brief summary of the article (no more than a paragraph).
  
• An explanation of your opinion regarding the ethical issue the article brings up.
• A defense of your opinion. Support your opinion with good reasons!
  

The response doesn't have to be typed. You won't be graded on your opinion. You'll be graded on how well you DEFEND your opinion. This assignment is worth up to 25 points.

Mom's Clippings
-How Much Privacy Do You Have at Work? (Newsweek)
-Humane Fast Food? (Newsweek)
-Salmon Fishing Crash (Newsweek)
-The Business Behind Niagara Falls (Newsweek)
-The Financial Crisis Disproves Libertarianism (Slate)
-The Invisible Hand Still Works (Newsweek)
-David Foster Wallace: Consider the Lobster (Gourmet)
-Nudge: Government Paternalism (Chronicle of Higher Education)
-You Don't Deserve Your Salary (San Francisco Chronicle)
-How Obvious Was Enron? (New Yorker)
-Free Market for Organ Donations? (New York Times Magazine)
-Company Rewards Workers... with Its Profit! (MSNBC)
-Paul Krugman: How'd Economists Get It So Wrong? (New York Times)
-Why Capitalism Fails: The Economist Who Predicted the Crisis (Boston Globe)
-Want a Real Free Market? Start Your Own Nation on the Sea! (Reason Magazine)
-The SEC's 15-Year-Old Nemesis (New York Times Magazine)

Everyday Low Wages

Here are some links on the ethics of Wal-Mart:

• In case you didn't get the handout in class, here's the debate we're reading between an economist who says Wal-Mart is good for the working class and a journalist who says Wal-Mart is bad for the working class.
• Here's a fascinating animated map of the growth of Wal-Mart across America from the 60's to today.
• How did Wal-Mart become the biggest retailer? Some point to founder Sam Walton's big idea that lowering prices would increase total sales and lead to higher profits. But another important development was how Wal-Mart streamlined its inventory process.
  
• Not only does Wal-Mart have low prices; apparently, the prices at other stores also go down in the long run when a Wal-Mart comes to town.
• Here are many of the common criticisms of Wal-Mart.
  
• Beware of false dilemmas! Some claim that this isn't a zero-sum situation: Wal-Mart doesn't have to raise its prices to raise its wages.
• There are two new books on Wal-Mart: Bethany Moreton's To Serve God and Wal-Mart (watch CSPAN's BookTV interview), and Nelson Lichtenstein's The Retail Revolution (listen to NPR's Fresh Air interview).
  
• Here's the full episode of South Park about a "Wall-Mart" coming to town. Below are some clips from the episode.