Another type of discrimination.19 Paula is Brand Manager for a line of soap used to scrub floors. Her assistant Terry is uneasy about the fact that Paula’s plan calls for advertising spots that feature unattractive actors. In her view, this kind of ad promotes harmful stereotyping of less-attractive people.

Paula defends her plan by citing an article in a top marketing journal, which reports research showing that sales are enhanced when attractive people appear in ads for glamorous products and unattractive people appear in cooking and cleaning ads. Terry, however, carried out a project in college in which she reviewed over 1,000 studies of societal attitudes toward physical appearance. She found a strong bias against unattractive people, who are discriminated against in employment and education even when equally qualified. Can she make an ethical case against Paula’s advertising plan?