Unilever's mayonaise brand Hellmann's uses buzzwords "real" and "local" foods in its current multimedia advertizing campaign. There are CSR, sustainability and marketing implications of this strategy relevant to a wider discussion of corpobligation.
Hellmann's Campaign calls consumers to join the "Real food movement": "As part of Hellmann's commitment to healthy and informed eating we believe that fresh, locally grown ingredients should be brought back to Canadian tables." Real is an interesting term to describe food, because the opposite would either be imaginary or fake food. Putting aside delicious imaginary delicacies s like manna or liger burgers (lion-tiger hybrids), Hellmann's is likely contrasting its ingredients to products that are full of artificial flavours and highly processed foods. This has potential to appeal to consumers trying to get back to basics.
Consumers are also concerned about local farmers and communities in a world of economic crisis. "Local" food labelling allows consumers to contribute to their community through everyday consumption. Hellmann's also encourage community and household gardens. But is Unilever a force for local food?
Corpobligation: Clean energy at a price competitive with natural gas or even coal is the goal for google, according to Bill Weihl, Google's clean energy czar:
...there are a lot of computers out there — over a billion PCs around the
world. And there will be 2.5 billion in a few short years.
Individually, each one's like a light bulb. But add them all up, and
it's a lot of energy.
But one of the basic problems with carbon-neutral or very low-carbon
sources of energy is that it's expensive, particularly compared with
coal. I've spent three years trying to understand what technology is
out there, and the somewhat disturbing answer is, there are billions of
dollars going into clean tech, and lots of companies have interesting
generation technologies that in a small number of years hope to be at
grid-parity. But that means cost parity with natural gas, which is 8 or
9 or 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Coal is half or a third of that.
We've invested $45-million in startup companies. We also have a small
group of engineers doing our own internal R&D, free from the
constraints of, "We actually have to build a business and show our
investors a return in three years." … The goal is to think very big.
And if we're successful, we may actually make a significant return from
doing this. Because anybody who figures out how to produce clean energy
at scale and at a cost that competes well with coal is gonna make a lot
of money.
Corpobligation: Micro credit, micro finance, small holder lending, micro creditos...whatever you call it...micro finance is a big deal and ACCION International is one of the biggest organizations:
Micro credit organizations have moved past a donor-charity system to a sustainable financial model of helping the poorest of the poor
Accion International is a pioneer and strong example of the micro credit model's potential
Micro lending has been more successful in the "developing" world than the "developed" world, but social lending by individuals to other individuals has blossomed on the internet
Corporate social responsibility stumbling blocks claimed by mainstream banks are challenged by the success of micro finance...
The customer, Rachel Hatton, said, "I was quite shocked - I took it back to the shop."
"Then obviously the shop assistants were quite shocked as well to find out this symbol was on there - it was not something that they'd noticed either straight away," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Corpobligation.com: Battling PR campaigns over the future of drug access, production and patents
A fight over the patentability of a cancer drug (Glivic, Gleevic, Imatinib) produced by Novartis has led to a wider debate around patents over drugs
Patents are Good: encourage innovation and risk taking, by preserving long term profits
Patents are Bad: prevent access to drugs because the patent holder charges more than generic drug makes would charge
Novartis challenged Indian patent law for failing to provide sufficient protection from the competition under WTO rules
Groups like Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) disagreed arguing that drug access was vital for worldwide health, especially in developing countries
Corporate Obligation? Did Novartis do the right thing strategically? They donate many treatments in India (99% according to their site) of Glivic and they have been upfront with their position; yet, a worldwide coalition formed to attack them. How can NGOs and governments create incentives to drive drug innovation?
News and Analysis 
The bag was externally sourced, according to Zara's spokesperson.
