He­len Dray­ton

Cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty (CSR) is some­times re­ferred to as con­science cap­i­tal­ism be­cause com­pa­nies with a so­cial con­science demon­strate sin­cere re­spect and con­cern for the so­ci­ety which gives them the fran­chise to op­er­ate.Peo­ple every­where are de­mand­ing ac­count­abil­i­ty for the per­for­mance of or­gan­i­sa­tions and gov­ern­ments. Do­ing what is right makes sense not on­ly be­cause it min­imis­es rep­u­ta­tion­al risk, but it al­so in­creas­es op­por­tu­ni­ties for or­gan­i­sa­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty, growth and de­vel­op­ment.

Many com­pa­nies us­ing bill­board ad­ver­tis­ing would say they are so­cial­ly re­spon­si­ble, mean­ing they are law-abid­ing, eth­i­cal, con­tribute eco­nom­i­cal­ly, and give back to the com­mu­ni­ty. Yet, those same com­pa­nies of­ten do not think twice about the ef­fects of their in­dis­crim­i­nate ac­tions on the phys­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment, and the ad­verse, in­cre­men­tal im­pact on the well-be­ing and sen­si­bil­i­ties of the peo­ple who pa­tro­n­ise them.

They turn the no­tion of CSR on its head and rel­e­gate com­mu­ni­ty out­reach to noth­ing more than hypocrisy. Their gen­er­ous char­i­ta­ble acts of­ten mask delin­quent be­hav­iours. Such cor­po­rate hypocrisy ex­tends to in­dis­crim­i­nate bill­board ad­ver­tis­ing.

Bill­board ad­ver­tis­ing is no doubt an ex­cel­lent ve­hi­cle for cor­po­rate and prod­uct brand­ing. Done strate­gi­cal­ly, it cre­ates aware­ness of com­pa­nies and their prod­ucts and con­se­quent­ly aids mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion and con­sumer mem­o­ra­bil­i­ty. It is a valid mar­ket­ing tool, so the ar­gu­ment here is not against that form of ad­ver­tis­ing, but rather its in­dis­crim­i­nate and un­law­ful use, and dis­re­spect for cit­i­zens.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers