Tobacco Industry and Corporate Responsibility - Essay Example

Tobacco is considered dangerous for health and specially prohibited for the use of underage children. Such considerations of the use of tobacco, therefore, create strong ethical issues for the tobacco companies to improve their image and become responsible in their conduct. Corporate social responsibility however become one of the key areas to look for by the tobacco companies. (WHO, 2004.)

This paper will discuss whether the perception about tobacco companies has changed in the UK as a result of the corporate social responsibility initiatives of the companies.

It has been, however, suggested that the overall perception of the consumers regarding the tobacco companies as a result of their corporate social responsibility initiatives has not been so encouraging. (Anderson, 2011). It is generally believed that the tobacco companies use corporate social responsibility as a tool to gain access to the politicians in the UK and therefore all their efforts for corporate social responsibility are basically aimed at gaining access to the people who are in power. This may be due to the fact that the very business structure of the tobacco companies can serve as an obstacle to achieving the objective of corporate social responsibility. (Simpson & Sue, 2003.)

The above graph suggests the prevalence of cigarette smoking by smoking and socio-economic groups from 1992 to 2009.  The above graph suggests that there is a greater reduction in the smoking of cigarettes according to the social class of the individuals. This reduction in the smoking incidences, therefore, suggests that the consumers may not be having clearly favorable perceptions about the tobacco companies and they are relatively relinquishing their smoking habits in order to avoid the dangers posed by smoking. The above graph also, however, suggests that the incidence in those people who are performing manual work has relatively remained stable owing to the early start of smoking by people belonging to this social class. It also, therefore, suggests that the corporate social responsibility practices of the tobacco companies tend to have a greater influence on the people who are relatively low in terms of their social class and status.

Tobacco companies have not been successful in fully utilizing corporate social responsibility because of the very nature of their business model.