Abstract

This media ethics case study will evaluate the ethical boundaries Netflix crossed in advertising their new movie: Cuties. Cuties is a French film that is about an 11-year-old girl with a Muslim upbringing faced with traditional values and also Internet culture. The film’s intention is to critique the hypersexualizing of young, pre-adolescent girls. The film had not received any backlash until Netflix began advertising the film and used a much more provocative poster to advertise the film than the poster used in France. This has lead to requests for Netflix to cancel streaming the movie. How Netflix chose to market the film will be examined in the case study. The TARES test will be used to support the case study analysis. The TARES test evaluates the ethics of individual messages that creators of every persuasive message should ask themselves. (Patterson et al., 2019) TARES stands for: truthfulness, authenticity, respect, equity, and socially responsible. Bok’s model of ethical decision making will also be used to analyze the ethics of this case study. The first step of Bok’s Model is to consult your own conscience about the "rightness" of an action. The second step is to seek expert advice on alternatives to the act of creating the ethical problem. The third step is to conduct a discussion with the parties involved (Patterson et al., 2019). The case study analysis will answer the following three questions:

1. Micro question: Should Netflix remove the film after the backlash it has faced due to the advertising of the film Cuties?

2. Midrange question: How does social media, like popular video sharing application Tik-Tok, contribute to this situation?

3. Macro question: What tips would you give to Netflix to avoid this situation in the future?