What price are you willing to pay to succeed in your PR activity? What actually is success anyway?
Speaking in terms of PR, success I believe is achieving objectives. Then with whose ruler are we supposed to measure our achievements? The answer is that the executive in charge of the plan will draw some evaluation guideline and those parameters are the criteria. That means you plan, you execute and you evaluate from the beginning to the end, all by yourself & your organization. “Oh! Okay! I knew this, fine! So what’s the problem?”...Well, I would like to bring forward an ethical dilemma that would challenge the basis of this close system of ‘evaluating ourselves by ourselves’. The dilemma is a real case study of what I have observed in the non profit organization that I am working in.
But one quick reminder before I get into the story that at least in the non-profit world, there is a pervasive belief among decision-makers based of which overall performance of the organization is often rated as acceptable and sometimes outstanding.That is because the ‘not for profit’ is always on the tow. Now the story:
When food manufacturers clear out their stock out of the old cans, they hand over near-expired food cans to INGOs as donations. Then we as the non-profit organizations hand over them in a pack with combination of some other stuff to single mothers, poor and sometimes disabled communities of which we visit. This creates for the media the opportunity to make some ‘success stories’ out of our efforts and also it provides our handsome product sponsors! some socially responsible images and a clean stock!…Therefore media wins, non-profit body (we) wins, food manufacturers win but what about the poor and single mothers? Well they also win! They receive some near-expired/expired products! How lovely!
This routine does not only belong to this international body. All other humanitarian organizations WORLDWIDE, precisely, follow the same to donate the poor and in needs. Now…
Imagine yourself in the shoes of the receiver! When he receives ‘Mickey mouse’ stuff (BTW ask yourself who really wants our old shoes?) of worth nothing and yet he has to hold that pack -usually despite of his will- until media do all the photography and cameras shoot enough footage for tonight’s television news feed. Yeah…He is only a fish, a fish for us, for them and for everyone who can use him as a fish. He was not born as a fish; we- PR people- turned him into our fish in exchange of a promotion or a handful of money. His picture, then, gets published in magazines, bulletins, catalogues, papers and on television of people watch, as our ‘PR success story’, as our PR achievement. And we yet celebrate when the television shows his face, since that fishy face is a major ‘evaluation’ parameter now, a gauge to measure what is known in this kind of PR as ‘success’.
I, personally, don’t believe in achieving objectives with any price. It seems that without considering a solid moral and ethical structure, ‘success’ not only in communications but in any other kind of activity is not achievable. But with whose moral or ethical codes shall we proceed? Ours or our organizations? Neither of them of course.
Therefore for an authentic and real ‘success’ measurement, the presence of a comprehensible & objective third perspective is a necessity to undertake the measurement. Unfortunately western post-enlightenment philosophy does not have much to say in this regard, whereas Holy Scriptures already has provided us with detailed strategies in ‘social situations’ as mentioned above. Here is what Holy Quran cites in (2:267) a precise and exact solution to our ethical dilemma:
I emailed the same verse to my colleagues and asked them to encourage our product sponsors to donate fresh stuff, not near expired reduced cans.
But nobody took it seriously.
Best regards,
Ali (LUCT)
Speaking in terms of PR, success I believe is achieving objectives. Then with whose ruler are we supposed to measure our achievements? The answer is that the executive in charge of the plan will draw some evaluation guideline and those parameters are the criteria. That means you plan, you execute and you evaluate from the beginning to the end, all by yourself & your organization. “Oh! Okay! I knew this, fine! So what’s the problem?”...Well, I would like to bring forward an ethical dilemma that would challenge the basis of this close system of ‘evaluating ourselves by ourselves’. The dilemma is a real case study of what I have observed in the non profit organization that I am working in.
But one quick reminder before I get into the story that at least in the non-profit world, there is a pervasive belief among decision-makers based of which overall performance of the organization is often rated as acceptable and sometimes outstanding.That is because the ‘not for profit’ is always on the tow. Now the story:
When food manufacturers clear out their stock out of the old cans, they hand over near-expired food cans to INGOs as donations. Then we as the non-profit organizations hand over them in a pack with combination of some other stuff to single mothers, poor and sometimes disabled communities of which we visit. This creates for the media the opportunity to make some ‘success stories’ out of our efforts and also it provides our handsome product sponsors! some socially responsible images and a clean stock!…Therefore media wins, non-profit body (we) wins, food manufacturers win but what about the poor and single mothers? Well they also win! They receive some near-expired/expired products! How lovely!
This routine does not only belong to this international body. All other humanitarian organizations WORLDWIDE, precisely, follow the same to donate the poor and in needs. Now…
Imagine yourself in the shoes of the receiver! When he receives ‘Mickey mouse’ stuff (BTW ask yourself who really wants our old shoes?) of worth nothing and yet he has to hold that pack -usually despite of his will- until media do all the photography and cameras shoot enough footage for tonight’s television news feed. Yeah…He is only a fish, a fish for us, for them and for everyone who can use him as a fish. He was not born as a fish; we- PR people- turned him into our fish in exchange of a promotion or a handful of money. His picture, then, gets published in magazines, bulletins, catalogues, papers and on television of people watch, as our ‘PR success story’, as our PR achievement. And we yet celebrate when the television shows his face, since that fishy face is a major ‘evaluation’ parameter now, a gauge to measure what is known in this kind of PR as ‘success’.
I, personally, don’t believe in achieving objectives with any price. It seems that without considering a solid moral and ethical structure, ‘success’ not only in communications but in any other kind of activity is not achievable. But with whose moral or ethical codes shall we proceed? Ours or our organizations? Neither of them of course.
Therefore for an authentic and real ‘success’ measurement, the presence of a comprehensible & objective third perspective is a necessity to undertake the measurement. Unfortunately western post-enlightenment philosophy does not have much to say in this regard, whereas Holy Scriptures already has provided us with detailed strategies in ‘social situations’ as mentioned above. Here is what Holy Quran cites in (2:267) a precise and exact solution to our ethical dilemma:
‘Do not donate something that you would never take it yourselves, except with closed eyes’
But nobody took it seriously.
Best regards,
Ali (LUCT)
3 comments:
Hi there Ali
Donating is such a good thing to both the organizations and the receiver more especially when it is done for a good cause. Both your organization and the donor shops benefit from that at least they get to relate with the poor or rather needy that receive donor products.
However i fail to understand why they donate unwanted products because no one would like to buy near-expire goods anyway. Just because the receivers are needy i do not feel they need to be given nearby expire products as a way of helping. Ofcouse they will accept them because they are needy, theres nothing else they can live upon eccept those donated stuff.
I think these organizations are more into working their own good to benefits for themselves rather than the needy to benefit.
Anyway it works for them the organization because the media get involved therefore earning themselves good publicity, that what PR is about which is their objective i guess.
Take care!
Sid (LUCT)
Agreed. Thanks for contribution.
Dear Ali,
I strongly disagree with you on the fact that we should not give away to charity or to the NGOS/N4P our used clothes, shoes etc.
I personally shop at the Salvation Army and other second-hand store and I don't mind wearing stuff that other people wore before.
You said that we should not give away what we would not like to receive but I think that it is up to our personal judgment to what one would like to receive. Coming from an African nation, I know that what the Western countries' citizens consider as used is not what African people consider as used. I have seen in some charity shops brand new clothes that are not fashionable anymore that Australians might not like to receive but which would be a wonderful gift for an African girl for example. I believe that anything can be used over and over again until it does not serve its primary function (e.g. shoes to walk in), it is just a matter of where is one's limit of wearing this or that.
Another aspect that I think is not totally true is that you mentioned that companies give away cans of food that are near their ‘expiry date’. I want to emphasize on the fact that a lot of canned product can be consumed without any health risks after their ‘expiry date’. It actually depends on the label "use by", “expiry date" or "best before". The only products that cannot be consumed without health risks after that date are the ones where the date mentioned on it is an actual "expiry date". The other two labels are on products that cannot be sold to the public after the date but which can be consumed.
It is true and I admire your initiative of asking for fresh product but let’s be realistic it is not going to happen anytime soon. Thus, the canned products are most welcomed even if they are NEAR their expiry date.
Kind regards,
Alix
Post a Comment