I have written in this space before about the concept of corporate social responsibility. It is an easy concept that unfortunately cannot find any fertile ground in which to grow within the profit-at-all-cost corporate world. In their world corporate citizenship is tied in chains to the profit first mentality.
Does anybody else ever get tired of being asked at a checkout whether you'd like to donate to some cause or another? As if you couldn't possibly give to charity without the help of a corporate giant. Starbucks recently pounced on all of their customers with a "buy a pound of this coffee and we'll donate to charity." Okay, so Starbucks adds $2 to the cost of some coffee they wish to promote, sends $1 to charity and pockets the other all the while touting themselves as do-gooders. Perhaps as a real citizen you could take that $1 and send it directly to your charity and remove the multi-national corporation from the equation.
The latest and most obvious corporate charity shenanigans is Kohl's department stores back-to-school ad. The commercial is glossy and sweet and it is very nice to look at but if the average price of making a national commercial is $350,000 then this puppy must have been in the $1 million range. Now they have to put the commercial on the air where rates start at $100,000 for a 30 second spot and goes up from there.
So why is this relevant? The ad is promoting the companies intention to give $500,000 to one of our cash strapped schools. They have tied it in with their Facebook page where consumers can vote for their favorite school which is a clever use of social media and also a way to drive people to your site. The problem for me is with the math.
Just a brief look at the costs of creating such a slick commercial and then airing it nationally for weeks lets us know that this is roughly a $15 million ad campaign. That means that Kohls is bragging about "giving" $500,000 to a school while they are spending millions to promote themselves. Can you imagine if they turned those numbers around? How about $15 million to our schools and $500,000 on self advertising? Now that would be real corporate citizenship.
There is a lot of talk these days that corporations have plenty of money but they are hoarding it and not hiring people or investing in this country. What would it be like for our schools and our economy to get a $15 million dollar shot in the arm? I'd say pretty good.
But according to ad week the American people are sucking it up. In a survey by Ace Metrix of 500 consumers the Kohls ads scored higher than any of the other back-to-school campaigns currently on the air. "We continue to see "do-good" creative resonating strongly with consumers and Kohl's clearly evoked this sentiment with their "Vote for Your School" campaign," said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. I have to assume he put "do-good" in parenthesis because they're not actually doing much good except to themselves.
I am no socialist and I don't believe that companies should be forced to give their money away or deny them the right to advertise their products. But I draw the line at the hypocrisy of the "do-gooder" ad. It is a false claim. If they really wanted to do good they could just do it and then tell everybody later. I'm pretty sure that a $15 million donation would do more for Kohl's reputation than any ad campaign.
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