IKEA ‘REGRETS’ CUTTING WOMEN FROM SAUDI ADVERT
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IKEA ‘REGRETS’ CUTTING WOMEN FROM SAUDI ADVERT
Is it fair to criticize Ikea for removing women from the catalogue it distributed in Saudi Arabia?
IKEA has since it was developed, established itself as viable bran that goes beyond selling products and creating an experience for its customers that is hard to forget. For it is a multinational conglomerate that designs and sells assembled furniture, it should arguably be criticized because they removed women and girls from their catalogue. For the most part, Ikea itself regrets its decision and wishes it could have handled the decision more reputably and differently. Additionally, it is fair if the brand is criticized for its actions because to some extent the brand’s ethics and law expert say it did not consider the bigger picture of how such an action would be perceived in some other places in the world.
Ideally, their actions resulted in a psychological effect which was more diverse and inclusive in their advertising and therefore reaching and affecting many people. The organization, through its reactions, has at most times, had a positive effect and therefore required criticism for ignoring the role women play in their catalogue (Eabrasu, 2019). For the most part, criticism was expected by Ikea, but its managers perceived it to be just a form of motivation to its brand to do more diverse campaigns.
Could Ikea have simply been trying to avoid being insensitive to local cultural values?
Primarily, Ikea definitely was not trying to avoid being insensitive to their local culture because this was part of its new branding activity. Ikea decision to remove women from their catalogue was only formulated to help the brand move more forward by first targeting a large number of its retailers. The brand has at most respect to its group values, and therefore this was not a form to articulate sensitivity to the local cultural values but a diverse advertising landscape. Also, referring to a review on values, Ikea states that it supports fundamental human rights for all people (Taher, 2019). Furthermore, Ikea declares that it should have reacted differently, and also sees to now review their routine to safeguard its presentation of cultural values point of view in a different but correct version.
Should Ikea, in fact, be applauded for its effort to be sensitive to the local culture?
The company brand should be applauded, despite its conspicuous failure of lack of moral courage and its absurdity to falling into a tangle that led to it apologizing and taking full responsibility for their done mistake. This is because at a later stage acknowledged the local culture concerning that of their brand.
References
Eabrasu, M. (2019). Harm, and Consent. In Moral Disagreements in Business (pp. 79-107). Springer, Cham.
Taher, E. A. T. (2019). Female visibility/representation in Saudi Arabia: a critical multimodal/discourse analysis of the 2013 IKEA catalogue and press discourses on Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation, Newcastle University).