What is Puffery

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is highly valuable for transnational corporations, but entails special requirements of heightened honesty in the marketing of CSR as compared to other goods and services. Because trust is essential to communicating the value of CSR effectively, companies must attend to the unique benefits and challenges that online communication of CSR commitments pose. While the Internet is ideal in allowing for global reach and greater capacity than the confines of standard advertisements, the Internet also poses special challenges in terms of facilitating trust with consumers and other stakeholders. This chapter highlights both the problems and benefits of marketing good corporate conduct online and provides moral guidelines for marketers of good corporate conduct.