Ethics are the moral principles and values that govern the actions and decision of an individual or group, and they provide guidelines on how to act rightly and justly when faced with moral dilemmas. In the business world, the practice of marketing often creates conflicts of interest resulting in ethical dilemmas. The ethical practices used to deal with these dilemmas could vary to different extent based on business culture, industry practices and corporate culture. However, due to the increasing awareness on ethical issues of stakeholders and consumer rights in recent years, the standard of these ethical practices have improved greatly along with corporate social responsibility awareness. In this essay, I will examine the promotion activities of a local beauty centre chain, analyze the activity with relevant frameworks and conclude with my own suggestions and opinion.

Royal Bodyperfect is a beauty centre chain based in Hong Kong with 6 centres which are mostly located in central business districts, such as Central and Causeway Bay. The beauty centre chain has several thousands of members and has been engaged in high-profile marketing campaigns in recent years with celebrities including actress Carina Lau Kar-ling and feng shui consultant Mak Ling Ling as spokesmodel to attract customers in joining its beauty slimming programmes.

In its websites, it provides some basic details of 1-month free trail for “Sexy Body Club” therapy course. There are some brief details of the trail package which includes “promised weight loss” for ideal body image, services of specialists and usage of centre facilities. Previous to this trail course, there were also a few member-turned-spokesmodel or slimming ambassador schemes.

In these schemes, some members were invited through telemarketing, where they would be interviewed by a panel to evaluate the suitability and become the company's spokesmodels if a certain weight target was achieved for a certain period of time. And in