Abstract
Advertising plays an important role in narrating the social side of a company which is often referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Corporate social campaigns are often seen as dubious, however, audiences as individuals interpret advertisements based on their values and experiences. TBSI (The Body Shop Indonesia) advertisements were conceptualized and analyzed using narrative transportation. Interviews are conducted with nine informants from various backgrounds. The results of the study are described in themes, namely (1) insight, (2) the relationship between CSR messages and the participant's value system, and (3) narrative responses to CSR advertisements. The result of the study states that advertising does not necessarily make the value from a social issue to be embedded or instilled in someone. Narrative and commitment to these values depend on the individual, person by person.
Highlights
The narrative transportation occurs when people depict themselves in a story
This study aims to gain insight and knowledge on how people construct their own story as a response to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages or projection
The dominant idealistic attributes based on the ads are synergy, sustainable and ethical. One participant expressed her strong opinion related to her working situation. It looks like a deviation, she proves that meaning and story are very personal and individual
Summary
The growing concerns of environmental sustainability, workers’ condition along with other societal issues gives pressures to companies to establish community development initiatives. The term CSR itself was invented in early 1950s (Jagger, 2016). It got more attention in early 1990s when John Elkington published his book “Cannibal with Fork: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business”. The book publication was triggered by accidents in the corporate world when oil spilled at Exxon Valdez. It emphasizes that, aside from profit, people and the planet should become the foundation of businesses anywhere in the world. There is a shift of the CSR’s initiatives from reactive to proactive. The proactive initiatives stretched further into the alignment of business processes (Mirvis & Googins in Waddock & Googins, 2011)
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