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Ethics of Beauty: L'Oreal Funds Business Ethics Program

October 22nd, 2008 @ 1:56 pm

3 Comments

Categories: Corporate Responsiblity, Education, Ethics, In the News

Tags: Ethics, L'Oreal, Business Ethics, Leadership, Management, Michael Mattis

loreal.jpgL’Oreal is sponsoring a new master’s degree program in “law and business ethics” at the University of Cergy-Pontoise in France, according to a recent posting in EthicsWorld.

According the the post, the international cosmetics giant has developed the new graduate degree course in association with France’s ESSEC Business School, the U.K. Institute of Business Ethics and the U.S. Ethics & Compliance Officers Association.

“This is the first diploma of its kind in Europe,” said Emmanuel Lulin, L’Oreal’s director of ethics. “Business ethics is a complex subject which needs to be addressed with humility and determination. The global leaders of tomorrow are those companies who have integrated ethics into their strategic planning but also their every-day business practices.”

But one has to wonder about a company whose advertising is designed to make women feel nervous about their looks endowing business ethics program. Some might think it a form of CSR-washing. Is it? You tell us.

Is L'Oreal's funding of a law and ethics program merely a PR move?

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    1

    Julie O'Malley

    10/23/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Ethics of Beauty: L'Oreal Funds Business Ethics Program

    This is analogous to the "enriched" flour used in white bread. It wouldn't need to be enriched if all the nutrients hadn't been stripped out to make it unnaturally soft and white.

    Women wouldn't need to buy L'Oreal's beauty products if we weren't bombarded with messages (from all sides, certainly not just L'Oreal) that the perfectly natural signs of human aging are ugly and must be "hidden" with gels and lotions and bleaches and dyes and depilatories and perfumes and exfoliators and...

    Business ethics, yeah.

  •  
    2

    ivana235

    10/23/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Ethics of Beauty: L'Oreal Funds Business Ethics Program

    The idea is perfect if I am asked, since this world alarmingly lacks ethics, but theory's one thing, yet practice another one. Among other things (L'Oreal, but also many other organizations and companies included) let's see if L'Oreal would dare to make a commercial without having it "Photoshopped".

  •  
    3

    mmoi

    10/29/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Ethics of Beauty: L'Oreal Funds Business Ethics Program

    Lettuce Look THIS Way: If a super surgeon was in the biz only for the bucks, Her expert procedures would--nonetheless--be *expert*.

    Here also, relating2public via educating public is the Gem! If the primary L'Oreal goal is mere public relations, AlleluiaAmen. A little runoff 2L'Oreal won't diminish public betterments.

    Ideally, initial seminar will include THIS query as case study!

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