An Audience Interpretation of Corporate Communication in a Cause-Related Corporate Outreach Event: The Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk

Abstract

Drawing upon a cultural studies perspective, this study investigates the audience role in shaping corporate involvement in social issues – identified as cause-related corporate outreach. We assert that, more than consumer, voter, or passive receptor of corporate messages, the audience is an active participant in the communication process. This case study of the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, one of the most visible fitness-based fundraising events, examines the meaning individual participants construct during their involvement in the event. The study provides a context in which public relations practitioners and scholars alike can better understand the role corporate communication plays in defining and preserving community and social values. This understanding can help corporations build communication that resonates with specific publics and is more beneficial to all involved. The research also extends public relations theory. It develops a cultural understanding of the growing phenomenon of corporate involvement in social issues as it applies to a public's involvement, shifting the traditional public relations research focus from an effects-based approach to one informed by cultural studies. Emphasizing the active role of the audience, the study investigates the experiential relationships of that public as it engages in a cause-related, corporate-sponsored fundraising event. Additionally, this study is methodologically expansive. It uses a variety of qualitative data-collection methods, including in-depth interviews, audio journals kept by walkers, participant observation, and post-walk focus groups to develop an audience-centered understanding of the walk experience and draw implications for public relations research and practice.