Ethical consumers, unethical consumers?

Many commentators tut-tut at our tendency for inconsistent or sporadic ethical consumption; 'wearing the t-shirt', but failing to weave ethics into the fabric of our lives. Parallel criticisms are often levelled at corporate initiatives.

We detect in these debates tension between an intellectualist ethics (demanding coherence, and far-sighted understanding of consequences) and a sentimentalist ethics (highlighting the importance of intuitive ethical reactions and feelings).

Significant demographic differences are certainly observable here - ABC1s tend to endorse more 'distant' causes - third world poverty, rather than animal welfare, for example - and tend to manifest a more 'pro-active', 'informed', 'coherent' approach to ethical consumption.

But most 'ethical consumers' segmentations are based on intellectualist assumptions and prejudices - thus they suggest that some consumers are simply more ethical - deeply misleading - it is rather that ethical commitment manifests in different ways.

Marketing Week 1 May 2008