Brand Activertising: From Profit-Purpose to Social Positioning

In an era of highly polarized public opinion, organizations all over the world are now facing a great dilemma, as brand activism and CSR strategies have a stronger influence on consumer behaviors than the traditional marketing campaigns. With marketing changing from purpose to action, and consumers becoming more belief driven, companies are being asked to take a stand, and choose a side on controversial sociopolitical issues. Advertising, the spearhead of organizational communication, which has always appropriated the social codes in force in society to persuade its target audience to carry out certain actions, nowadays, can no longer be dissociated from the moral concerns of consumers who increasingly demand corporate responsibility from organizations. This chapter explores the evolution of advertising's role, in a historical and contextual approach, analyzed from the new relationship model that citizens and consumers demand from companies and the reflection that it has on the advertising message.