Corporate Social Responsibility

APCO spent 6 months asking 1,000 of what it called “hyper-aware and influential U.S. consumers” how much credence they put in corporate social responsibility. As you might expect, 90% of those surveyed said it was highly important. One of the more interesting takeaways is that the public judges a company’s social goodness by how well it treats employees.

Each year, PR News honors the top corporate social responsibility campaigns—and the brands and communicators behind them—at its CSR & Nonprofit Awards Luncheon at Washington, D.C.’s historic National Press Club. From environmental protection to disaster relief to gender equality, these campaigns and communicators have enacted positive change that will be felt for years to come.

Unilever is threatening to pull ads from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google—but the way the consumer goods giant conveyed that message has been as powerful as the message itself. The company’s CMO Keith Weed planned to use his keynote at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting today to call for improved transparency, accountability and consumer trust in digital platforms. But in a masterstroke of messaging, the company managed to humanize itself and score earned media, while also positioning Unilever as a thought leader, by releasing the speech strategically.

In an effort to combat harmful advertising in the beauty industry, CVS has made a commitment to keep it real. The retail chain has unveiled its Beauty Mark campaign, promising that it will no longer “digitally alter or change a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color or enhance or alter lines, wrinkles or other individual characteristics” in the imagery it creates for its stores and marketing.

An area where data has influenced communicators heavily is in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Instead of addressing social issues based on what communicators felt the public was thinking about, savvy PR pros are using data to assess needs prior to mounting a CSR effort. Here’s how one health organization used data and research before beginning its CSR initiative.

Over the weekend, four brands announced they would not advertise on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, but none felt the backlash quite like Keurig, as videos of people smashing its machines lit up Twitter. The violent response underscores the tricky situation brands are in when caught in the crossfire of a politically charged controversy. Keurig first faced backlash for its inaction. When it took a stand, it faced another angry wave of protests.

I haven’t heard Christmas tunes in the shops of New York yet, but any minute they’ll be cranking them out. Once I hear that first awful new version of Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song” everything’s… Continued

Corporate social responsibility has been evolving for quite some time, moving from pure philanthropic efforts to a fully ingrained way of doing business. Today, companies most respected for CSR listen to the

Reports that Facebook’s self-service ad-buying tool may have been used by Russian agents during the 2016 election—as well as allowed anti-Semitic groups to target like-minded individuals—has damaged the brand’s reputation and raised questions about federal regulation of social media ads. The revelations have also raised questions about transparency, integrity and crisis management. When should a company withhold information it knows will damage its brand, and for how long?

The cruise ship industry is often on the wrong end of crisis communications, but Hurricane Irma has given Royal Caribbean the chance to show its humanitarian side, even as it deals with pressing customer service issues on social media. The Miami-based company is mobilizing four of its ships to help people in need with food, water and other supplies, in coordination with the federal government as well as local governments in St. Thomas and St. Maarten.