emergencemarketing.com

As I was driving to a meeting today I heard Robin Young at Here and Now talk (here) about this new product - the baby gender mentor. The product costs less than $300 and reveals the gender of a baby with 100% accuracy only five weeks into the pregnancy. Oh - and its like a home pregnancy test - it only requires a finger prick.

Having read about the horrible results of sex selection in countries like China - my first reaction was one of disgust. How could a company be so unethical as to launch a product that could eventually lead to wars. That is indeed one of the accepted potential outcomes of a society with a large imbalance between the number of males vs. females.

But as I thought about it some more, I realized that if that company were not to do it, someone else probably would - concluding that there must be a better way than expecting “self-policing” on the product manufacturers’ part. So maybe this is where we should have our Government step in? Nah…look at the stupidity of the stem cell research “virtual” ban imposed in this country. Referendums? Probably too complicated. Economic boycotts - maybe… at first, that seems to be the best form of self-regulation - relying on the intelligence of crowds to not buy goods that they do not approve of. But in the face of big corporate ad spending and its opinion-forming capabilities, somehow that solution seems to be flawed as well.

When your ethics are not the same as mine - that makes for very difficult conversations…

[Technorati Tags: ethics product innovation]

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