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Compassion, Inc.

How Corporate America Blurs the Line between What We Buy, Who We Are, and Those We Help
by Mara Einstein (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Apr 2012
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9780520951631
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 1 line illustration
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About the Book

Pink ribbons, red dresses, and greenwashing—American corporations are scrambling to tug at consumer heartstrings through cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, and ethical branding, tactics that can increase sales by as much as 74%. Harmless? Marketing insider Mara Einstein demonstrates in this penetrating analysis why the answer is a resounding “No!” In Compassion, Inc. she outlines how cause-related marketing desensitizes the public by putting a pleasant face on complex problems. She takes us through the unseen ways in which large sums of consumer dollars go into corporate coffers rather than helping the less fortunate. She also discusses companies that truly do make the world a better place, and those that just pretend to.

About the Author

Mara Einstein is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Queens College. She is the author of Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age. She has worked as a senior marketing executive in both broadcast and cable television as well as at major advertising agencies.

Table of Contents

Preface

1 Value Brands . . . They Ain’t What They Used to Be
2 How Corporations Co-Opt Caring: Strategic Philanthropy, Cause-Related Marketing, and Corporate Social Responsibility
3 The Birth of the Hypercharity and the Rise of “Charitainment”
4 The Consequences of Co-Opting Compassion
5 Shopping Is Not Philanthropy. Period.
6 Can Companies Make a Difference?
7 We Are Not Consumers

Notes
Index

Reviews

“”Einstein has the unenviable task of reminding us that shopping is not philanthropy. The consumer marketplace is increasingly becoming the mechanism for funding organizations that do charitable work, thus tying the fates of charities to the whims of the market, Einstein warns. It is also enabling governments to further abdicate problem-solving, with the result that the causes we care so much about are not genuinely helped.”
— Ms Magazine
“Einstein’s message is especially powerful because she is not cynically hostile to corporate America or the free market; this book is not, by any stretch about bashing corporate America. . . . Given the effectiveness of cause-related marketing, we’re likely only to see more of it. Einstein’s book is a powerful call to be more attentive to whether we’re letting ourselves try to be philanthropic on the cheap by “giving” to others when we’re really just getting something for ourselves.”
— Philanthropy Daily
“A highly worthwhile read with prescriptive examples for authentic sustainability and social justice initiatives at companies—not all about the brand, the celebrity or corporate self-interest.”
— Book Kvetch Blog
“Marketing campaigns associated with philanthropy . . . may sound magnanimous, but when Einstein shines a lens on the practice, she finds considerable cracks in the veneer.”
— Ms Magazine
“On our must-read list. . . . Books like Compassion, Inc. can help us remember the importance of thinking deeply and critically about they ways in which we work to create a better world for all.”
— Humane Connection
"Provocative."
— Advertising Age
"Eminently readable. . . . Few have questioned whether [corporate charitable giving] strategies are good for anyone but corporations. Mara Einstein is one of the brave few."
— International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR)
“Mara Einstein once again brings a clear head and discerning eye to one of our culture's most energetically promoted yet ambiguously motivated sectors. Whether you want to do real good for the world - or simply ridicule those who have been fooled into thinking they are - this book will show you the light.” -Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life Inc: How Corporatism Conquered the World and How We Can Take it Back

"Mara Einstein pulls back the curtain on some of the most important marketing developments of our day with a nuanced analysis that is both penetrating and fair minded." -Joseph Turow, author of The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry is Defining Your Identity and Your World

“Compassion, Inc challenges us as human beings to look at the true effects of our attempts to "purchase for positive social change." Einstein clearly articulates how we are too often creating the very same problems we are trying to solve. In this smart and well-researched look at the oxymoron of sustainable consumption, Einstein shows us that there is indeed another way, and how we can be more effective as consumers, but most importantly as citizens.” -Courtney Hull, Hull Family Foundation