No abstract

No abstract

This study examined the potential for a new area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) washing: gender equality. Companies are increasingly recognized for advertisements promoting gender equality, termed "femvertisements." However, it is unclear whether companies that win femvertising awards actually support women with an institutionalized approach to gender equality. A quantitative content analysis was performed assessing company leadership team listings, annual reports, CSR reports, and CSR websites of 61 US-based companies (31 award winners and 30 non-winning competitors) to compare the prevalence of internal and external gender-equality CSR activities of companies that have (versus have not) won femvertising awards. When controlling for number of employees and annual revenue, award-winning companies committed to more internal efforts that support women than non-award-winning companies. However, no significant differences were found in the number of external efforts or representation in female leadership between companies with and without awardwinning femvertisements. Overall, a majority of award-winning companies (81%) engaged in less than ten of the possible 23 gender-equality CSR activities, suggesting these companies' female empowerment commercials were often not in line with their broader CSR activities. While more research is needed in this area, we propose the term "fempower-washing" to describe CSR-washing in the context of gender equality. Keywords Femvertising • Corporate social responsibility • CSR advertising • Corporate hypocrisy • CSR-washingAn emerging area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is activism, wherein companies take stances on sometimes controversial social issues such as LGBTQ+ rights,

PurposeThis study explores the framing of messages delivered by 105 Fortune 500 companies across 21 sectors in June 2020 in response to three social justice issues that took prominence that month in the United States: racial inequity, immigration laws and LGBTQ rights.Design/methodology/approachResearchers compiled a list of the top five companies in each sector on the 2020 Fortune 500 list, with a resulting list of N = 21 sectors and N = 105 companies. A database of corporate statements was compiled along with a comprehensive list of recurring themes. Quantitative framing analysis was used to examine each corporate statement.FindingsSeventy percent of the companies examined made statements about the issue of racial injustice, 58% about LGBTQ issues and only 6% about immigration policy. Coders identified the most frequent message type coded on each social justice issue: racial inequity –“Working Together”; immigration policy – “Celebration”; LGBTQ rights – “Celebration.”Research limitations/implicationsThis study relied on a quantitative analysis of themes, but it did not analyze the specific language or media used. Further examination of rhetorical choices could uncover additional meanings in the messages.Practical implicationsCompanies are increasingly called upon to speak out on controversial issues. This can be challenging for communicators who are deciding how to respond. This study sheds light on the common frames used in corporate statements.Originality/valueNo studies to date have adopted a content analysis approach to assess the content of corporate activist statements. Examining the messages is important because, as more companies become increasingly vocal about social issues, stakeholders utilize this information to judge the sincerity of both the company and the message.

We were honored to be selected as participants in this year's ANA Educational Foundation (AEF) Visiting Professor Program (VPP), which gave us a chance to see firsthand the inner workings of this ever-changing industry. Through AEF's VPP Immersion Program, we spent a week with a team of 30 professors visiting eight agencies and internal advertising departments in New York City (NYC). Ten of the professors also stayed an extra week at individual advertising agencies to take part in week-long, deep-dive VPP Fellowships. There were many themes from the week, including, as expected, conversations around the infamous "advertising is dead" debate. This long-standing dialog continues to echo throughout the top agencies in NYC. Even the term "ad" agency was scrutinized; cases were made for and against this title from industry professionals and professors alike. R/GA, for instance, emphasized a focus on creative disruption and designing connected products that address consumer needs rather than just creating ads to boost sales and raise brand awareness. With an increasing number of advertising services offered by in-house teams and holding companies, ad agencies continue to "reimagine how business as usual is done" (Blakeman, 2018, p. 49).