Last week’s Marketing Society Forum question asks whether corporate social responsibility is replacing traditional campaign marketing. The resounding answer from the four respondents was 'No'.
Of particular interest to me were the thoughts of Mike Welsh, the chief executive of Publicis Dialogue. ‘Most of the world's big corporations undertake CSR projects because they have to not because they want to,' he argued. He may well be on the money but what a depressing state of affairs.
If Welsh is right this suggests that senior management - or shareholders - are solely driven by profits and would only approve of CSR for the sake presentational issues. Do you get to a certain level and automatically lose your humanity? I'd like to think that if I were a chief executive of multi-national I would give something back to society but then maybe that's why I wouldn't make a good one.
Business and social responsibility were not always seen as mutually exclusive. Kraft's rejected bid for Cadbury put the story of philanthropist John Cadbury back in the spotlight.
Yes it is true that his brand of paternalism would not work in today's world where people resist being told how to lead their lives. But nonetheless the example he set shows that CSR, although it was not called that back then, can be embedded in a business and not just an add-on.
