selling something that isn't for you

[Society]

its a notion that came up recently: the conversation started from quoting a guy who started an online service service for married couples looking to cheat, who said himself that he and his wife would never be able to handle it.

the point of view brought up was that its hypocritical.

i have being trying to understand this point of view: is there something unethical about selling something when you aren't the target audience?

i am currently working on a mobile app game with a target audience of 6-11 year old's in mind, i am not it's target audience. am i being a hypocrite? what's the difference between what he's doing and what i am doing?

 

[kyuuei]

Hm.. I think business is business. I helped sell a ton of things I would never typically buy myself--overpriced alcohol, high-quality make-up, etc. It's a job. He saw a way to make money, and took it. I don't see it being any different than people making and selling tobacco products or alcohol.

 

[garbage]

Not unethical at all. Those working in marketing for Boeing aren't exactly going to go out and buy missiles.

It's simply easier to sell something to an audience if you understand that audience. It's easier to understand that audience if you're part of that audience. Therefore, [obvious line of thought here]

However, if, say, Microsoft or Apple can't eat its own dog food, then that doesn't bode well for its products. That's bad for sales, but it's not quite hypocrisy.


If there's a difference between what he's doing and what you're doing, it's that the thing he's selling can itself be considered unethical. But I don't think there's actual hypocrisy involved.

 

[Lark]

its a notion that came up recently: the conversation started from quoting a guy who started an online service service for married couples looking to cheat, who said himself that he and his wife would never be able to handle it.

the point of view brought up was that its hypocritical.

i have being trying to understand this point of view: is there something unethical about selling something when you aren't the target audience?

i am currently working on a mobile app game with a target audience of 6-11 year old's in mind, i am not it's target audience. am i being a hypocrite? what's the difference between what he's doing and what i am doing?

No, I dont think there's any equivalence, I presume that the app is not something which you find objectionable?

Its not simply that he is selling to a target audience he doesnt belong to that he's hypocritical, at least not as I understand it.

Although I think that this behaviour could qualify as being of the exploitative or marketing personas in Erich Fromm's character typology.

 

[Such Irony]

You don't have to be the ideal audience to understand where that audience is coming from. So I don't see a problem with it.

 

[KDude]

I wouldn't care. Especially with games? If I was that guilt-ridden, I would go insane.

In the first example, it's a little different. The service with the married people is enabling something with questionable results or consequences. 6 yr old games, otoh, generally aren't creating a moral dilemma. Not to me at least. Maybe Ne types can imagine more things to question themselves about.