legal and ethical issues of Skoda 'Cake' Advert

After researching the legal issues to this advert, I didn't find much wrong with the advert at all, it just states the permission that they had to be given by certain companies, particularly for the music which was used from 'The sound of music' the song being 'Favourite things'- One bit of trivia about the Skoda advert: Julie Andrews gave her personal approval to the soundtrack, following Skoda asking EMI's permission. In able to get the permission, the creative team would of had to determine who is the copyright owner of the material intended for use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format intended, and -- in some cases -- pay the owner a fee.

The creative team went through an enormous amount of trouble to go to for an advert - some estimates say that it cost £500,000 to make; one newspaper pointed out the comparative value of a Skoda (the advert costs 62 times as much). This is seen as a problem because it was a big risk to promote their car to the extreme;spending this much money could be seen to the public as just a way of trying to make their company look good but also greedy. They told the media that instead of disposing the cake they would donate it to charity; the cake was not edible by the time it had been sitting in the studio so the cake ended up in a compost heap.This could also be seen as them not sticking to their word which could make the company look unreliable.

In recent research Skoda has been found to employ many prisoners in result of shortage of skilled labour that affected so many enterprises in socialist societies.They made up 90 per cent of the pressing plant, for instance. When they were freed during political amnesties in January 1990, it left a gaping hole in the factory's labour force: higher wages could not tempt them back. In one of the ironies of history, conscript soldiers were briefly ordered to fill their places but because they were less skilled, production remained far below demand and Skoda's debts, acquired in the 1980s, continued to grow.

"VW has been good for Skoda," says Prof Bailey. Thanks to VW's help, it has become the only central-European engineering enterprise from the Communist era to have turned into a competitive household name - thanks to management flexibility, deep commitment and recognition of the brand overhaul needed. And Skoda has, in turn, been good for VW.