Soda and tobacco industry corporate social responsibility campaigns: how do they compare?

Summary Points * Because sugary beverages are implicated in the global obesity crisis, major soda manufacturers have recently employed elaborate, expensive, multinational corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. * These campaigns echo the tobacco industry's use of CSR as a means to focus responsibility on consumers rather than on the corporation, bolster the companies' and their products' popularity, and to prevent regulation. * In response to health concerns about their products, soda companies appear to have launched comprehensive CSR initiatives sooner than did tobacco companies. * Unlike tobacco CSR campaigns, soda company CSR campaigns explicitly aim to increase sales, including among young people. * As they did with tobacco, public health advocates need to counter industry CSR with strong denormalization campaigns to educate the public and policymakers about the effects of soda CSR campaigns and the social ills caused by sugary beverages. Implications for Public Health Advocates Tobacco companies launched CSR campaigns to rehabilitate themselves with the public when their image had been tarnished [20]. Because the most comprehensive initiatives were introduced well after intense public outcry, however, their CSR efforts struggled to achieve their aims [42].