The Darwinian beauty of capitalism is that a firm that sacrifices maximum business efficiency for ethics will be destroyed and replaced by ones that do not have this defect.
No, attaching yourself to popular interests as a marketing strategy isn't sacrificing gains for ethics. Nor is it “ethics” even if some instances of it use “ethical” or a synonym in the branding.
Ethics is doing right because it's right. Making an outward show of ethics where it is advantageous to make a sale (Eve if what you are selling is advice to others on where to put their money) is not ethics, it is commercial exploitation of others ethics.
From a pragmatic point of view, I'd argue that as long as certain ethical standards are (in fact) upheld, the distinction doesn't matter, but I concede that this is a view that not everyone would share.
> Ethics is doing right because it's right. Making an outward show of ethics where it is advantageous to make a sale (Eve if what you are selling is advice to others on where to put their money) is not ethics, it is commercial exploitation of others ethics.
Yes, but why are you assuming that no business exists that can do (at least some) things because they are right?
If such a business exists, than it's hard to see how Darwinian capitalism would lead to its destruction and replacement, given the aforementioned popular interest.
In theory, if some individuals do things because they are right, and some of those individuals are business owners, than transitively, some businesses that do things because they are right should exist.
In practice, there are plenty of non-profit foundations motivated by doing things because they are right, and which operate for-profit businesses in direct or indirect support of their motives. Management is appointed by ownership and tasked to execute the business as ownership intends, which at least occasionally means that sometimes, things are being done because they are right.
As a practical example, it's hard to imagine a (hypothetical) mosquito net manufacturing business owned by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation operating in violation of the foundation's ethical position.