http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4356852.htm Thousands of Aboriginal children, including babies, are being signed up for funeral insurance, in schemes the Federal Government describes as "extraordinary" and "shocking". An investigation by The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has found that more than half of all Indigenous consumers of funeral insurance are under the age of 20. More than one third of them are under 15. Human Services Minister Stuart Robert estimates that some children could end up paying $100,000 for a funeral over their lifetime.
Idk about "selling", but marketing, advertising and cold calling are all unethical and absolutely despicable. But I've done some of those things, because I had to but hated it, and felt bad because I always thought I was basically screwing people over.
Sales pitches are a form of free speech. Adults should know better than to believe everything they hear and read. Advertisers and sales people are not your friends. They aren't obligated to look out for your best interests. People need to grow up and accept reality.
A town bans door to door salesmen, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-22/door-to-door-salespeople-warned-off-remote-indigenous-community/7347512?section=qld
not according to my ethics. there are as many types of ethics as there are persons though. I have been forced to do jobs of such nature which i found unethical .... of course I hated it.
If people bought only what they could afford--the whole rig would collapse. Most sales are wants and not needs. I guess what follows sounds like a sales pitch, but I don't know how else to explain my feeling about trying to get that signature on the dotted line. Having been in the roofing trade for almost 50 years, I know that some companies use pretty high pressure sales tactics. I don't and my boys don't use pressure at all. I always told/tell prospective customers what we could do, what we would charge and to get other bids to determine their best course of action to take. I never wanted to push people to use me/us if they had any doubts about honesty, price or anything, because re-roofing involves good size bucks. Much of our work now comes from Angies List and word of mouth. Also, several customers have asked to pay with payments, which some have lasted a year or more. We're not dealing with hundreds of dollars or even several thousands of dollars--roofing is expensive and I/we want people to feel that they were treated fairly. And of course, get the best roof possible. IMO, this is the way to treat customers and those that write to Angies List about our company reflect as much. Retail is a different matter and people should be able to walk away from a high pressure sales person immediately just on a matter of principle.
Reality is, most free market advertising is aimed at increasing market share by taking business away from direct competitors in situations where consumers are already interested in making a purchase. It's also very much aimed at first time customers. Once somebody has tried your product or service, they have formed their own opinion of it, and it's extremely hard to change that opinion with advertising. If someone has worked hard to establish a business that provides a quality product or service at a reasonable price, some amount of advertising is needed to get the word out to the intended customer base. Otherwise, the business may do poorly, and the employees and investors will have no one but upper management to blame. Social media is helpful, but usually isn't sufficient by itself.