The Game Ka Na Ba TV Show - A Review of Ethical and Social Responsibility

A growing business will have some basic responsibilities. First is economic. The famous Milton Friedman in the past advocates that "the business's ultimate goal is economic" which is very reasonable. The business likewise has its legal, ethical and social responsibilities.

Let's take the case of the TV show Game Ka Na Ba of ABS-CBN which started in 2004. The show randomly chooses its participants from a pool of people texting their personal info. The home viewers also have a chance to win during the show through texting. A text commonly costs P10 pesos. P2 pesos goes to the telco company like Globe or Smart. If there are 50,000 texters, the show has automatically P500,000 or P1M if there are 100,000 texters in one scenario.

As a business, it's economically viable having a pool of advertisers and revenues from the text or SMS messages. As a TV show of ABS-CBN we can assume it's legally registered and pays its taxes. How does the show perform social responsibilities?

In the show, the best player gets to answer sequences of questions with given clues. The contest progresses like a pyramid, the contestant gets to be challenged by a higher monetary prize if he gets to answer the question correctly. If he is unable to answer the question correctly, he might lose all her/his winnings. The biggest prize is P1M pesos. The contestant has the option to settle for a smaller prize like P350,000 or P500,000 wherein she or he could avail a showcase package (can be in a form of livelihood like a tricycle or sari-sari store) that can be shared with a friend or family member or somebody in need of charity.

This showcase may be considered as a form of social responsibility wherein the business is able to return a service back to society. It's like helping your community while you are earning. But a business may also use this charity or social responsibility as a tax exemption. So the more a business exercises CSR, the less tax it pays. Or a business may use this as a form of free advertising. While the business gets tax exemption, it gets promoted thru the charity service.

And the other conflict here is the ethical issue. As the show earns, encouraging millions of viewers to participate in texting or sending SMS to join the contest--isn't it unethical? The show has propagated that joining contests thru SMS, spending P10 per chance or entry is acceptable and it's a norm. You'll have a chance of winning. Doesn't it follow the same principle of gambling? Doesn't it promote a practice, an attitude of spending for a chance to win? Doesn't it promote dependency on the show, giving false hope to the viewers because in reality, the more texters there are, the higher slim chance of winning. Doesn't it promote an attitude of passive acceptance of the show? This means that the audience would care less on how the emcee is intimidating the contestant or if the answer to the question is really correct because the audience concern is whether she or he is going to win for that night. Is this being ethical? Is this the kind of social responsibility that the show or the broadcast station should give back to the society?

Ethical and social responsibility is not only measured by the amount of assistance or service given to those deprived in the society (physically, mentally or financially). It is not an easy, well-understood thing. Being ethical is keeping, holding to some moral principles shared by all the stakeholders of the business. And more than the financial support, CSR is educating the society, promoting a lifelong healthy society.