Marketers Love Disasters

Disasters are great for certain businesses and corporations. Marketing folks love setting up photo ops displaying their logos prominently and crafting nifty CSR themed websites.They've done something good - and they want to make sure you damn well fucking know that they've done something good (or that they're really sorry for doing something really bad).

They are responsible - they are socially responsible - they ooze Corporate Social Responsibility (I'd like to shake the hand of the copywriter that coined that term).

Do these soulless multinational entities give a fuck about those affected by the hurricane/earthquake/flood/fire/oil spill? Probably not - but their PR/Marketing teams (internal or external) are expert at spinning catastrophes - either self-made (as in the case of Shell below) or naturally occurring - into a positive PR marketing message.

Sure - a nice big fat check does a lot to alleviate suffering.

Shell has paid out over $34.5 billion in taxes and royalties to the Nigerian federal government. That's good right? That money has probably helped the poorest and most impoverished people of the Nigerian delta, right? That money probably set up some really great environmental protections, right? That's enough cash to make all those human rights violations and crimes against the environment go away, right?