The Pakistani Spectator

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines corporate responsibility as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families and the local community and society at large.

More than goodwill, corporate community involvement or strategic corporate philanthropy, corporate responsibility is a genuine attempt by a company to build meaningful relationships between the corporate sector and the rest of society.

Corporate responsibility is achieved when a business adapts all of its practices to ensure that it operates in ways that meet, or exceed, the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business.

To be considered effective, corporate responsibility must be an integrated part of day-to-day business, engaging all stakeholders and including strategies to support individual managers to make socially responsible decisions, conform to ethical behavior and obey the law.

Sometime ago, in the not-so-distant past, we were bombarded with lengthy ads with cool looking dudes doing something extraordinarily brave (like cliff hanging) with a puff of smoke in the peripheral vision, ending with a short and speedy warning ‘smoking is injurious to health’. We’d also have similar disclaimers and caution messages for medicine advertisements with a voice speaking at a 100 words per minute (or something close to that) to ‘use medicine with doctor’s directions, keep them away from children, and if the illness is serious consult a doctor’. When I was young I used to try to speak at the same speed, but never came close.

This post is not about those ads, because they still tried to warn the consumers of any possible harms, no matter how ineffective or annoyingly paced the messages were.

My issue is different. It’s with the product marketers who know that excess usage of their products can be harmful - still they promote the excess usage without any warning. For example, does a soft-drink manufacturer realize potential harm that is caused to bones, especially of children if they drink excess of carbonated drink? I still remember the advertisement of a soft drink company which showed three kids drinking different types of drink (It was I guess tea, artificial juice and a soft drink) and the one who drank the soft drink became a pop-star while others grew up to be losers. Or another such ad in which a child doesn’t drink milk so his mother gives him ‘milk toffee’ as a replacement for a glass of milk. Do these companies realize the effect these things can have on children’s health. Do they even care, at all?

Corporations in Pakistan are waking up to realize the power of children in influencing the buying power of a family, (hence the ‘captain safeguard’ and ‘life buoy’ germ busters campaigns), but do they even stop to think for a moment that all their products might not be suitable for people under a certain age bracket. Or at least have the decency of including a warning saying that excess usage of their product for children under a certain age is not recommended.

Or is due to absence of any check and balance mechanism in Pakistan they just want to maximize on the profits and ignore the harm their product brings to our young generation?

The problem isn’t so much the misguided ads, but the philosophy the advertisers live by. As consumers it feels like all those corporations care about are their bottom-lines without even stopping to think about consumer rights or awareness for a second. Exploiting and manipulating masses through advertisements that run non-stop. If this isn’t a form of brain-washing or capitalism to the nth degree, then I’m not sure what is. However, I understand that companies businesses run on successful sales - and successful sales are proportional to the brand’s presence and awareness. Having said that, I also know that if companies become a little more conscious of their advertising messages and themes, they’re brands would be better appreciated and looked up to.

Sources: Corporate responsibility Index, World Business Council.

Last 5 posts by Saleem

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