CSR - A matter of ethics or business?

“Stakeholders want companies to make a profit, but not at the expense of their staff and the wider community.”

   

                                            Brian Gosschalk, CEO, MORI

The term Corporate social responsibility expresses a series of actions that businesses adopt in order to solve social and environmental issues. This is part of the ethical conduct towards the community in which they operate. The actions of corporate social responsibility are developed in two main lines, the actions inside the company, like the staff, and those on the external environment, like the wide enviromnment in which they operate.The actions concerning the staff , are actions that a company does in order to improve the working conditions of the employees. Some examples can be the  educational programs in which companies offer employees additional benefits, care centers and creative activities for their children,moreover additional health insurance programs can be offered. The actions concerning the wider society in which a company operates can be either social, cultural or even environmental. There is the view that businesses use CSR in order to promote themselves and to gain publicity. And that is where PR comes. CSR it's a field that the communications team is handling because it definitely has to do with the overall image of the company in society. Especially now that NGO's are ready to attack companies at any time, and the appreciation of corporates from the public is lower than ever, CSR is a tool for PR to show the importance of caring for the society and all the ethical issues that are raised.

No matter what the aim of CSR is, we can't miss the fact that today ethics play an important role in every kind of business and that is what makes the public embrace a certain corporate. Giving back to the society is a priority for everyone that works and makes profit through business. Social performance will keep reinforcing the ethical profile of corporates so both the public and companies can co-exist and co-operate under the best circumstances.

 One of the most attacked corporate in the world McDonalds introduces their social responsibility

PR and political campaigns - "Yes we can (?)"

"In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? "

                                                   Barack Obama

 

I once read that if you want to be a president or a prime minister you need 10% talent and 90% good PR. After this rather controversial comment I started thinking about all these politicians that managed to win difficult political battles and to emerge in the top political level of their countries, but at the end it was proved that they had absolutely 0% talent. That equals 100% good Public Relations? The power that the industry has is not exactly fresh news, especially for us. Some may call it manipulation of the masses. I’ll just say it is the power of communication. Let’s take the case of Barack Obama. He was considered the hope of America, the “light of the future” (god I’d make an excellent journalist), or even the new Martin Luther King. All these before he was elected. At the moment, he is the president of the USA. So what? 

A definition of Public Relations (among others) is the building of relationships with audiences and usually the words “persuade” and “manipulate” are in the same sentence. Let’s take a look on what Obama’s PR team did that made him tha most talked about person in the planet back in 2008. First of all,  Barack Obama had one of the largest PR campaigns ever made and he achieved some great things. Like the fact that he attracted the most young voters in the history of the USA. How that happened? Social media. Does this ring a bell? Of course it does. The PR team knew the importance of approaching the right audience with the right tools. He created a webiste that had a link to his blog and he took full advantage of Facebook, Twitter Youtube and even Myspace. I am sure that if you followed him at that time in any of that social netwrking sites you'd have been impressed by his activity and his inspirational content. The guy knew what he was doing. And that takes us to the highlight of the campaign. The Americans had just exited a very difficult period of their history and Obama played the role of the savior. So he needed to be presented as one. And then is when he invented the phrases that accompanied his posters: "hope", "change" and "yes we can". But, could he? It doesn't even matter. 

The point of all these was to manipulate (I know you probably don't like this word but in this case, I dare you to find a better one..) the crowd that wanted to believe in better days, And he made it. He was elected the president of the USA but unfortunately nothing changed. Some even say that it's even worse than before. In my previous post I wrote about whether PR has undermined the trust in Politics and my opinion was no. Because no matter how good your PR team is, if you can't support the image that has been created for you, then nothing can't.

P.S. : Barack I might be a little bit harsh on you but if this helps: Yes, I believed you too at that time!