Corporate Social Responsibility

From a business perspective, many people thought CVS was crazy to remove tobacco products from its shelves back in September 2014. Today the country’s largest pharmacy chain doubled down on its bet, announcing it will pledge $10 million to the American Cancer Society in an effort to help people lead healthier lives. Whatever else you want to say about CVS, it knows how to do CSR.

In each edition of PR News we highlight takeaways from select articles as well as additions to the PR News Resources Center, available to subscribers only. This edition highlights a new report from Yum! Brands and a short but terrific template for editorial submissions.

“First we eat, then we do everything else,” the preeminent American food writer M.F.K. Fisher once proclaimed. We can all agree that food is an important part of our lives. So when the CEO of… Continued

More than a hollow and cookie-cutter corporate document, “Toward a Vision for Racial Equity & Inclusion at Starbucks: Review and Recommendations” reads as a realigning of perspectives and priorities. This is the work of a brand that has taken a hard, honest look at itself and is ready to share what it has learned.

Conventional wisdom held that brands should avoid weighing in on politics or social issues. But as research reports and surveys show, consumers now want brands to stand for something beyond goods and services. That said, brands wade into the political world on several levels, although they do so at their peril, and sometimes their motivation is unclear.

As we know, brands must stand for something beyond the products and services they offer. This means they can no longer remain silent in the face of an attack. They also need to admit when they make mistakes. Margaret Hoerster, a senior partner at Finn Partners, and Ameet Sachdev, a VP at the firm, argue timing, messaging and relevance play important roles when brands decide they should address an issue publicly.

Should your brand and CEO address a social or political issue? How about one that on its face seems to have little to do with your company? Last week during an IPR conference in Washington, D.C., Southwest Airlines’ CCO Linda Rutherford discussed a mechanism the carrier uses to advise its CEO about the social and political topics he should engage with.

Ethics has become an issue for businesses, including PR. The new Global Communications Report from the Center for PR at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism finds PR pros and students certainly are concerned with ethics and the public’s perception of PR’s ethics. The respondents are less clear about what to do about it.

At PR News’ 2018 CSR & Nonprofit Awards luncheon in Washington, D.C., honorees inspired their peers not just with their accomplishments but with their takeaways from their winning campaigns—making the event a learning experience as well as a celebration.

With the March for Our Lives set for Saturday at venues around the country, what should brands be doing, if anything, to prepare? We asked Barie Carmichael , a senior counselor at APCO Worldwide and a former communicator at iconic brands. In sum, it’s a delicate dance and one size does not fit all.