Many people use guilt to get things done. We guilt our children into doing the chores. We guilt our family members to doing things they really don't like. And we guilt our business partners into situations that they are uncomfortable with because guilt is a great way of getting people to do things without much of an effort. By just telling people that they are guilty of this or that and allowing them the time to mull the idea over is more than sufficient to get people to do the thing you need done. No one epitomizes this better than mothers. I don't care how old you are, no one, not even your wife (forget most husbands as they don't have the DNA set up to do this efficiently so most don't even try), will have the devastating effect as your mother will have on you. How many of us have heard a statement along the lines of, 'I carried you for 9 months in my stomach, going through the pain, the disfigurement and then the excruciating pain of labor, and you can't even take two minutes of your time to...(fill in the blank here)'.

Now that the business world have seen the efficiency of this guilt trip, they have decided to take advantage of this powerful weapon on our psyche and created a wonderful, for them at least, vehicle that they promote within business called CSR. That is Corporate Social Responsibility or as I like to call it Bull$%^t.

Before any socially liberal person goes ballistic on me, allow me to explain why I think that this is nothing more than hogwash that marketers have put together to get us to pay for our guilt. First, my mindset is that of a liberal person when it comes to social issues such as poverty, hunger, illness and so forth and so on. That is to say, I want to help as many people as I can who are suffering any of these issues because death, disease and poverty know no religion, race, location or any of the labels we put up. As for the issue of guilt, we are all taught it in someway or another either through social education within a community such as don't dirty the streets as we all use it. Don't use other people's property without their consent. All good things but they rely on people feeling guilty about not doing so because they don't want it happening to them rather than a sense that this is something that they benefit from. Or from a religious upbringing that teaches us to care for the less fortunate. In itself, quite admirable but when used as a weapon against us, destructive. Let's face it, people need to be guilted in to doing things that they don't want to do because they feel that since it doesn't affect them, why should they do it.

So, now to the crux of the matter as to why I feel that CSR is nothing but guilt marketing. Mind you, I have nothing against marketing. I think we all enjoy what they produce whether it is ads or campaigns because they can be either fun or bring us a product or service that might make our lives that much better. But when used to guilt us into action that benefits them by making us feel bad for something that we did to enrich their coffers, I need to call them on it.

For starters, what is CSR? The key letter in that question is "R". Why R? Because the "R" stands for responsibility. To be responsible, one has to be alive with a sense of morality. How can a company or corporate be alive? Yes the people working within it are humans and are alive but the outer shell, the corporate, is not. Let's take this argument a step further. OK! Assume that a corporate is alive and has a social duty. Whose morality should be apply on the company? The Chairman's? The CEO's? The Board of Directors'? The shareholder's? The janitor's? You can see the dilemma. Let's add one more layer. If the company is based in LA and works in Riyadh, whose morality should I apply? In the US all charity by companies must not distinguish between religions or social behavior. So if the company must give equal support for the LGBT community in LA can they apply that in Riyadh? How about supporting atheist groups in the US. Can I do that in Saudi Arabia? You can see the issue here.

A while ago, the in thing was to pay for your guilt as websites that would calculate how much damage you did to the environment and charge you a sum that you would pay with the idea that the money would go into planting trees or something along the lines. I guess the trees within the house of the owners of the websites counts too.

How about where hotels say that in order to save the environment, good CSR as we all want to save the environment, reuse the towels or close the lights. While I agree with those things and might do them because I do care for the environment, I don't like hotels taking me for a fool. What they should say is, in order to save us money, could you please do x, y or z. Their customers might have a problem with this approach and thus they guilt them into thinking that they care for the environment. If they did, they would have never built the hotel in the first place.

I am going to leave you with what was the most disgusting example I saw ever perpetrated by a corporation without giving its name. A company that was banned from advertising in formula 1 at the beginning of the 2000s for reason of a change in the law. They took the money they would have spent on the hoardings and giveaways that would have gone to that event and spent $150m in good works and helping the poor. So far, great. Then it spent $250m advertising that it did this good. So basically the good that they did was just a vehicle to advertise what a good company they would like you to think they are by making you feel guilty about hating them considering all the good they do and hopefully you will forget where that money that they used to do this good came from. How nice of them.

I have no arguments against a company marketing. That is part and parcel of what they do to promote their name, service or products. That is perfectly fine. What I have a problem with is when they know that they can't market their goods or services and use our natural feeling of guilt against us to think of them as a morale or altruistic company. They are not. All companies work for the bottom line and that is fine. If the people who work in these companies want to do good on a personal basis, more power to them. If the company wants to show that it cares for the community that it makes its profit from, no problem but call it what it is marketing and stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes by showing us that you care for the community rather than the bottom line. If that is the goal of that particular company, then convert to charity organization or a philanthropical fund. We will all cheer for you.