Psychopaths or citizens? The battle for the soul of modern brands

Michael Hines

This paper argues that corporations have historically always been in pursuit of one goal - profit - due to a sole focus on the interests of shareholders, and that a brand's concern for social good and its commitment to a purpose greater than itself only manifests when its profits are threatened.

Psychopaths or Citizens? The battle for the soul of modern brands

Michael HinesOgilvy & Mather

At the end of 2012, Starbucks, Google and Amazon were called before the House of Commons to explain their tax contributions over years of trading in the UK. They left the hearing amidst a public media firestorm.

Starbucks had notched up UK sales of 400 million in the previous year, but had reported a taxable profit only once in the 15 years of operating in the UK1. They attempted to navigate around it by offering to pay £20million, a fraction of...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands