Clever marketing by industries promoting unhealthy products during the pandemic could have negative outcomes for public health, a new report argues.
Resource details:
Publication title: Signalling Virtue, Promoting Harm – Unhealthy commodity industries and COVID-19
Author(s): NCD Alliance and SPECTRUM Consortium
Publication date: 9 September 2020
What the report is about:
The NCD Alliance is a civil society network of organisations working to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). SPECTRUM is an association of various universities collaborating on the economic determinants of health inequalities. The two organisations produced the report examining how leading commodity corporations — such as those producing “alcohol, fossil fuels, infant milk formula, tobacco and ultra-processed food and drink products” — responded to the new coronavirus pandemic. The report outlines the implications and consequences these corporate responses have on health and sustainable development.
Key take-aways from the report:
Method and data:
- Data was crowdsourced with the NCD Alliance and SPECTRUM Consortium asking researchers and activists whose work focuses on curbing non-communicable diseases to submit examples of how corporations were responding to COVID-19.
- People submitted entries by completing an online survey detailing the corporate responses to the pandemic that they observed since 30 January 2020 (when the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency). This data was collected from between 5 May 2020 until 17 July 2020.
- Details about the location, industry, behaviour, and description of the corporate initiatives were recorded.
- 786 complete responses were captured from 94 countries.
Findings:
- Leveraging the pandemic
- As part of their marketing response to the pandemic corporations linked their products with the work of health professionals and other frontline workers by for example offering free doughnuts to frontline workers.
- In developing countries, unhealthy industries used the opportunity to present themselves as providing essential support when governments could not by donating hospital equipment or meals for hospitals, for example.
- Several drinks companies specially rebranded their products to thank frontline workers, in some instances also making sure to position own employees as a central part of the COVID-19 response. In India, Lays pushed out a campaign to appreciate “each hero in the supply chain who works tirelessly against the odds to make sure Lays brings joy to millions across the country.”
- Public health protocols taken up during the pandemic, such as social distancing or wearing masks, have seen corporations commodifying and branding personal protective equipment and selling social distancing. This includes taking advantage of virtual ‘billboard’ opportunities offered by online platforms such as Zoom or offering free masks with purchases as an incentive for increased spending.
- What good are the do-gooders really doing?
- The report highlights how companies used corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes as a strategic tool to advance their commercial and political interests. This includes using CSR “to build constituencies among local and national communities”. For example, Heineken Asia Pacific’s pledge to donate money in support of restaurants and bars in Malaysia and Singapore.
- Corporate initiatives have also included strategic donations to support frontline workers. The report notes as an example South African Breweries’ donation of “100,000 face shields made from recycled beer crates” to a provincial health department.
- Alcohol producers donated hand sanitiser to medical facilities in various countries including South Africa.
- In June, health actvists and aclohol policy experts told Bhekisisa that these kinds of donations and social campaigns double as advertising for the industry and are used as arguments against tighter regulation.
- Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) donated 50 ventilators to intensive care units in Greece and in Germany PMI’s production sites were used as logistics centers to distribute personal protective equipment.
- Why is that bad? It flouts the World Health Organisation’s rules for engagement with the tobacco industry in which countries signed on to stop taking donations from the industry. Find out which South African universities took money from Big Tobacco here.
- COVID-19 and corporate collaboration
- Through partnerships with government ministries, health agencies and civil society corporations have signalled themselves as contributors to global health and development.
- Checks and balances set up for the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund prevents the alcohol, arms and tobacco industries from donating any money. There are no such rules for drinks and processed food companies, however. As a consequence of this the fund has received millions in contributions from Pepsico and industry-backed nonprofits such as the Starbucks Foundation.
- The report uses as one of its examples the beer producer, AB InBev’s campaign tagline “more ways we are part of the solution” and how this works to position the company as collaborating to the COVID-19 response and a central contributor to sustainable development.
- Why does this matter? The researchers note that creating the appearance of working in collaboration with governments and health agencies is a longstanding strategy used by corporations.
- How corporate response could shape policy
- In response to government restrictions during lockdown corporations have lobbied to have their products classified as essential. This includes tobacco, alcohol and processed foods and drinks companies, the report notes.
- South Africa’s alcohol sales ban and the opposition it received is highlighted as an example of this since there was so much pressure for sales to resume.
- Recommendations
- The report warns about the threat of corporate capture of COVID-19. To help ensure that policy and economic responses to the pandemic prioritise public health and the publics’ interests over vested corporate interests the following suggestions are made:
- Improve conflict of interest regulations for other industries like there are for tobacco, for example.
- Supporting civil society organisations to ensure any funding received from corporations doesn’t influence or undermine their missions.
- Championing health and development priorities in initiatives addressing the pandemic.
- Making a commitment not to succumb to industry pressure to change or relax regulations on its business.
- The report warns about the threat of corporate capture of COVID-19. To help ensure that policy and economic responses to the pandemic prioritise public health and the publics’ interests over vested corporate interests the following suggestions are made:
You can find and download the report here.
[Please note: Information on the new coronavirus is rapidly changing. Please refer to the NCD Alliance website for the latest information. Visit www.sacoronavirus.co.za for updates on South Africa’s coronavirus response.]
