Business Case Studies & Business Publications

El Diablo: The Corner Cleaner Affair

Fairchild, Gregory...

Case

El Diablo: The Corner Cleaner Affair

Fairchild, Gregory B.

E-0218 | Published June 20, 2003 | 9 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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This case involves the decision of a publishing company, El Diablo, to target a traditionally underserved market with a series of books about gang life and street vigilantism. The decision has repercussions within the firm, as collegial relationships are tested by office politics, and outside of the firm, where community response to the project is less than positive. Civil rights groups challenge the company's development of pulp fiction targeted at black youths as unethical and likely to lead them to violence. Also, the hiring of a minority candidate by the minority director of the new products division is questioned by top management. The case raises difficult questions: Does a corporation have a civic duty to its target audience? How might that manifest itself? At the intersection of profit and responsibility, who has the right of way? (Role-play opportunities are explained in the teaching note.)