Upheavals

What’s your CSR really saying?

Smart move on the part of Absolut. Link trendy no logo design for Fashion Week in London with a clear social message. In this case, the vodka maker has used lack-of-label to also express their thoughts on a world free of sexual prejudice.

What really makes this connection credible and not just a cutesy ad-line for an occasion is the company’s near-three decade commitment to the principle of equal rights.

It’s a classic example of how a commercial entity can champion a real cause in a viable and distinctive way. And a real contrast with the self-referencing, read self-serving, “sponsorships” that so many seem to think constitute social responsibility.

Interesting thought about that - and one that no doubt one will attract its own fair share of opinion - is Peter Salmon’s view that organisations that implement high profile corporate social responsibility programmes when they have no strong track record for social concern are probably just looking to put distance between what they recognise they should be doing and what they know they have been doing.

CSR as an admission of guilt. Immm … now there’s a provocative little item for the board meeting the next time you feel like livening up proceedings.

POSTED: Thursday, 24 September 2009

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