Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2009
Publication Title
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Volume
7
Issue
3
First Page
51
Last Page
55
Abstract
From pink ribbons to Product Red, cause marketing adroitly serves two masters, earning profits for corporations while raising funds for charities. Yet the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change.
Recommended Citation
Eikenberry, Angela M., "The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing" (2009). Public Administration Faculty Publications. 39.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/pubadfacpub/39