2009/01/01 by Angela M. Eikenberry, Eikenberry, Angela M. · 1 citation
Decision Sciences · #Ethics in Business and Education
paper · doi:10.48558/jshg-bf85
From pink ribbons to Product Red, cause marketing adroitly serves two masters, earning profits for corporations while raising funds for charities. Yet the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change.