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Why Your CSR is Boring

"Good" does not equal "newsworthy" by default.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

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Your CSR activ­it­ies are boring.

Zzz. Wait, what? Did any­one say “cor­por­ate social responsibility”?

CSR is when brands con­trib­ute to the great­er good of soci­ety — even though they tech­nic­ally don’t have to do it. 

Typical examples could be:

Planting rain­forest in the Amazon.
Drilling for fresh water in Africa.
Donating funds to dis­aster relief.

All good causes, for sure. 

But, as PR pro­fes­sion­als, we know this too well: get­ting pub­lic recog­ni­tion for CSR activ­it­ies is challenging. 

Where’s all that sweet goodwill?

When 1,000 People Agree With You

As a com­pany serving the great­er good through vari­ous CSR activ­it­ies, in the­ory, you should be reap­ing at least some busi­ness rewards for doing good.

A glob­al brand could alloc­ate mil­lions of dol­lars for good causes without earn­ing so much as a headline. 

Doing good is com­mend­able — but not news­worthy by default.

But pub­li­city is one thing. What about goodwill?

Most people find CSR activ­it­ies to be both import­ant and noble. Commendable, even. 

But inter­est­ing? Not so much.

In short: People favour your CSR endeav­our, which makes it unin­ter­est­ing from a media perspective.

It’s coun­ter­in­tu­it­ive, but people engage less with major­ity positions.

Moral Majorites = Boring

Most CSR issues tend to be backed by “mor­al” majorities.

Planting rain­forest in the Amazon.
Drilling for fresh water in Africa.
Donating funds to dis­aster relief.

Imagine going out on a busy street to ask 1,000 by-pass­ers what they think about sav­ing the rain­forest. It’s not unthink­able that you would col­lect 1,000 “yes, that’s import­ant” answers.

If 99,9% of your peers think that the rain­forest is worth sav­ing and you agree, you don’t feel you belong to a wronged minor­ity and are less likely to engage.

Sorry. People engage with less intens­ity in major­ity positions.

Regarding the PR effect, the con­ver­sion the­ory is why CSR activ­it­ies work best when a brand finds an intel­li­gent minor­ity to liaise with — against a stu­pid majority.

The Conversion Theory

The social psy­cho­lo­gist Serge Moscovici found that we become more engaged if we belong to a mis­rep­res­en­ted minor­ity.

The dis­pro­por­tion­al power of minor­it­ies is known as the con­ver­sion the­ory. 1Conversion the­ory of minor­ity influ­ence. (2021, February 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​m​i​n​o​r​i​t​y​_​i​n​f​l​u​e​nce

“In groups, the minor­ity can have a dis­pro­por­tion­ate effect, con­vert­ing many ‘major­ity’ mem­bers to their own cause. This is because many major­ity group mem­bers are not strong believ­ers in its cause. They may be simply going along because it seems easi­er or that there is no real altern­at­ive. They may also have become dis­il­lu­sioned with the group pur­pose, pro­cess, or lead­er­ship and are seek­ing a viable altern­at­ive.”
Source: Changingminds​.org 2Conversion Theory. (2023). Changingminds​.org. https://​chan​ging​minds​.org/​e​x​p​l​a​n​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​h​e​o​r​i​e​s​/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​.​htm

How does it work?

The social cost of hold­ing a dif­fer­ent view than the major­ity is high. This increased cost explains why minor­it­ies often hold their opin­ions more firmly. It takes determ­in­a­tion to go against the norm. 3Moscovici, S. (1980). Toward a the­ory of con­ver­sion beha­viour. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 209 – 239. New York: Academic Press

In con­trast, many major­ity mem­bers don’t hold their opin­ions so firmly. They might belong to the major­ity for no oth­er reas­on than that every­one else seems to be. 4Chryssochoou, X. and Volpato, C. (2004). Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto, Social Justice Research, 17, 4, 357 – 388

According to con­ver­sion the­ory, while major­it­ies often claim norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies strive for eth­ic­al high ground. 

Conversion Theory Examples

Given the power of norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies typ­ic­ally form tight-knit groups that can gath­er around a com­mon core message.

Most big shifts usu­ally start with a small group of ded­ic­ated people:

  • Dietary move­ments. A minor­ity advoc­at­ing for a spe­cif­ic diet or life­style choice (e.g., vegan­ism or paleo) gradu­ally per­suades oth­ers to adopt these prac­tices, lead­ing to a broad­er cul­tur­al shift.
  • Fashion trends. A small group of fash­ion influ­en­cers intro­duces a new style or cloth­ing item, and as they gain vis­ib­il­ity, the trend catches on and becomes widely popular.
  • Political act­iv­ism. Grassroots move­ments, such as cli­mate change act­iv­ism or social justice cam­paigns, can begin with a small group of pas­sion­ate indi­vidu­als who even­tu­ally influ­ence the wider pub­lic and bring about policy changes.
  • Workplace innov­a­tion. A minor­ity of employ­ees with­in a com­pany pro­pose a new strategy, product, or pro­cess that ini­tially faces res­ist­ance but even­tu­ally wins over the major­ity and leads to organ­iz­a­tion­al change.
  • Social media chal­lenges. Viral chal­lenges or trends often begin with a small group or an indi­vidu­al who cap­tures the pub­lic’s atten­tion, and the phe­nomen­on then spreads rap­idly to the majority.
  • Art and music appre­ci­ation. A minor­ity group, such as fans of an indie band or sup­port­ers of a con­tro­ver­sial artist, may ini­tially be seen as niche or uncon­ven­tion­al but can even­tu­ally bring their pref­er­ences into the mainstream.
  • Technology adop­tion. Early adop­ters of new tech­no­logy, such as elec­tric vehicles or crypto­cur­rency, may ini­tially be a minor­ity but can sig­ni­fic­antly influ­ence the broad­er pop­u­la­tion to embrace these innov­a­tions over time.
  • Educational reforms. A small group of edu­cat­ors or par­ents advoc­at­ing for changes in the edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem, such as altern­at­ive teach­ing meth­ods or updated cur­ricula, may sway pub­lic opin­ion and lead to wide­spread reforms.
  • Sports and fit­ness trends: New exer­cise routines or sports, like CrossFit or parkour, often start with a minor­ity fol­low­ing and, as their pop­ular­ity grows, influ­ence the lar­ger pop­u­la­tion to par­ti­cip­ate in and adopt these activities.
  • Language and slang. The evol­u­tion of lan­guage and the incor­por­a­tion of new slang terms or phrases can be traced back to minor­ity groups, such as spe­cif­ic sub­cul­tures or region­al com­munit­ies, whose lin­guist­ic innov­a­tions gradu­ally per­meate main­stream communication.

Minority Influence: A PR Approach

Organisations with CSR aspir­a­tions can cul­tiv­ate a sense of pur­pose and accom­plish­ment among par­ti­cipants by align­ing with a move­ment that chal­lenges a stu­pid majority.

Since we tend to favour under­dogs, liais­ing with a care­fully selec­ted minor­ity can serve as a game-chan­ging PR strategy.

Minority spokes­per­sons with sol­id con­vic­tions often pos­sess valu­able know­ledge and author­ity, enhan­cing their per­suas­ive abil­it­ies and influence.

Disproportionately, minor­it­ies can con­vert numer­ous major­ity mem­bers to their cause, as many in the major­ity may have merely fol­lowed the path of least res­ist­ance, made decisions without much con­sid­er­a­tion, or lacked viable alternatives.

Additionally, a sig­ni­fic­ant seg­ment of the major­ity might be dis­il­lu­sioned with their group’s pur­pose, pro­cess, or lead­er­ship, ren­der­ing them more recept­ive to altern­at­ive proposals.

Proceed With Caution, Please

As PR pro­fes­sion­als, we must be cau­tious when imple­ment­ing the con­ver­sion theory.

Minorities aren’t always right, and major­it­ies aren’t always wrong. Minorities can hold futile views while still exer­cising a dis­pro­por­tion­ate amount of power.

Learn more: Conversion Theory: The Disproportionate Influence of Minorities

Cosmetic Sustainability

In pub­lic rela­tions, cos­met­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity refers to giv­ing the impres­sion of being envir­on­ment­ally friendly or socially con­scious without imple­ment­ing sub­stant­ive, mean­ing­ful changes. 

Here are some examples of cos­met­ic sustainability:

  • Greenwashing. Organisations give the impres­sion of being envir­on­ment­ally friendly without provid­ing any pos­it­ive impact of substance.
  • Bluewashing. Organisations claim to be envir­on­ment­ally respons­ible by asso­ci­at­ing them­selves with ocean and water con­ser­va­tion efforts without sig­ni­fic­ant actions to sup­port those claims.
  • Socialwashing. Organisations present them­selves as cham­pi­ons of social causes or cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity (CSR) ini­ti­at­ives without genu­inely invest­ing in or address­ing those issues.
  • Pinkwashing. The use of LGBTQ+ rights and causes to mar­ket products or improve an organ­isa­tion’s image while not sup­port­ing these com­munit­ies meaningfully.
  • Brownwashing. Portraying an organ­isa­tion as sup­port­ive of racial justice and diversity ini­ti­at­ives without real com­mit­ment or sys­tem­ic change with­in the organisation.
  • Cleanwashing. Marketing products as “clean” or “non-tox­ic” when the terms are not clearly defined or reg­u­lated and without sig­ni­fic­ant evid­ence to sup­port the safety and envir­on­ment­al bene­fits of the products.
  • Localwashing. Organisations emphas­ise loc­al sourcing or com­munity engage­ment to appeal to con­sumers while not genu­inely con­trib­ut­ing to the loc­al eco­nomy or environment.
  • Wokewashing. Adopting pro­gress­ive val­ues or stances on social issues super­fi­cially to attract socially con­scious con­sumers without genu­inely address­ing these issues with­in the organisation.
  • Healthwashing. Organisations mar­ket products as health­i­er than they are by high­light­ing minor bene­fi­cial ingredi­ents or prac­tices while ignor­ing harm­ful com­pon­ents or practices.
  • Labourwashing. Claiming eth­ic­al prac­tices in areas like labour rights, sourcing, and man­u­fac­tur­ing without adher­ing to rig­or­ous stand­ards or mak­ing sig­ni­fic­ant improvements.
  • Charitywashing. Promoting char­it­able dona­tions or part­ner­ships to improve brand image, where the con­tri­bu­tions are min­im­al, or the focus is more on the pub­li­city than the impact.

Each of these types of cos­met­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity involves a dis­crep­ancy between the com­pany’s pub­lic image and its actu­al prac­tices, often mis­lead­ing con­sumers and stake­hold­ers about their true impact and intentions.

“Greenwashing is more likely when firm stock volat­il­ity is low, cost of cap­it­al is high, pri­cing power is strong, and inform­a­tion asym­metry is high, but cur­rent returns to gre­en­wash­ing are lim­ited without a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of inform­a­tion asym­metry.“
Source: Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment 5Gregory, R. (2020). When is gre­en­wash­ing an easy fix? Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 13, 919 — 942. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​2​0​4​3​0​7​9​5​.​2​0​2​1​.​1​9​0​7​091

Learn more: Cosmetic Sustainability and Public Relations

How To Make Your CSR Less Boring

Brands are gen­er­ally per­ceived as both power­ful and wealthy.

To be accep­ted as the under­dog, the brand must be vul­ner­able to deserve pub­lic acknowledgement.

1. There must be a clearly defined enemy; the more potent the enemy, the more interesting the story.

If you want people to act­ively sup­port your brand, they need to know who and what you’re up against and that the brand is put­ting itself at risk by tak­ing this position.

From a PR per­spect­ive, com­pan­ies cut­ting down rain­forests are weak. And tak­ing a stand on behalf of the rain­forest is risk-free for the brand.

Is there a clearly defined enemy backed by a stu­pid major­ity?
Does a smart minor­ity back you in tak­ing down this enemy?

2. There must be obstacles and stakes to keep the brand accountable and the audience engaged.

CSR, too, obeys the fun­da­ment­al laws of storytelling; you need a strong enemy and must also accept a hero’s journey. 

You can’t expect people to trust or respect you if you don’t harm your brand for what it believes in. 

There must be some­thing “at risk,” some­thing tan­gible for the brand’s bot­tom line. The brand must make enemies.

What’s at stake for your com­pany?
In what way is the out­come for your busi­ness uncertain?

Jerry Silfwer - Doctor Spin - Spin Factory - Public Relations

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Annotations
Annotations
1 Conversion the­ory of minor­ity influ­ence. (2021, February 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​m​i​n​o​r​i​t​y​_​i​n​f​l​u​e​nce
2 Conversion Theory. (2023). Changingminds​.org. https://​chan​ging​minds​.org/​e​x​p​l​a​n​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​h​e​o​r​i​e​s​/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​.​htm
3 Moscovici, S. (1980). Toward a the­ory of con­ver­sion beha­viour. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 209 – 239. New York: Academic Press
4 Chryssochoou, X. and Volpato, C. (2004). Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto, Social Justice Research, 17, 4, 357 – 388
5 Gregory, R. (2020). When is gre­en­wash­ing an easy fix? Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 13, 919 — 942. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​2​0​4​3​0​7​9​5​.​2​0​2​1​.​1​9​0​7​091
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Whispr Group NYC, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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