Tobacco Industry: Corporate Social Responsibility

1259 Words6 Pages
Negative public perception has been the catalyst driving the tobacco industry to incorporate corporate social responsibility (CSR) within their strategies and operations to alleviate their unethical public image. However, the effectiveness and genuine credibility of their attempts in doing so are to be questioned. This essay encompasses the questionable attempts of tobacco companies to implant corporate social responsibility within the roots of their operations, with particular focus on major companies such as Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco (BAT). The evaluation of their attempts will be analysed in accordance to various ethical principles of the Global Business Standards Codex (GBSC) - transparency, citizenship and responsiveness principles. The central contradiction between corporate social responsibility and tobacco companies is the inherent fact that smoking kills (Friedman 2009). Regardless of any assertions by tobacco companies that they are genuinely implementing CSR for social good and wellbeing, they face continual abhorrence from anti-tobacco forces such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) who question the mere possibility of social responsibility in the tobacco industry (Palazzo and Richter 2005). Hence, the attempts of tobacco companies in effectively implementing CSR to gain corporate legitimacy and change the public perception of the industry are strictly limited. In the past decades the tobacco industry has reasonably conducted its venture into CSR in accordance with the transparency principle, of which a central element was to advertise in a truthful and open manner. That is, “to ensure that the firm’s marketing focus would not mislead or misinform its current and potential customers” (Stanwick, P & Stanwick S 2009, pp. 4-12). However, the actions taken to comply with CSR principles within the GBSC were not genuine

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