Moral Conduct Statements a Part of Advertising? Social responsibility has become a large part of multinational companies advertising. In my opinion, companies use their social actions and ethical conduct as a way to boost buying confidence with their consumers. After the oil spill in the gulf, BP launched a social responsibility initiative to boost their brand reputation. Since the beginning of the oil spill in April of 2010 and the end of August, BP spent three times the amount on advertising than it did from April to July in 2009. This shows that BP felt it was important to spend over 93 million dollars on advertising to promote their brand image in the wake of a crisis. Although this isn’t an attempt to describe the treatment of their workers, it shows the importance of advertising a company’s brand image. I find that any company that uses social conduct statements to be advertising as they are trying to protect their profits. In my experience, I base my purchasing decisions on how much I want the item and if there is a company that provides a substitute that supports better moral and social conduct, I will buy it instead. I do buy Apple products knowing that the conditions at Foxconn are less than satisfactory as most of my friends and acquaintances do the same. I feel like some companies know consumers will buy their product because of how desirable it is, regardless of their social responsibility. This may show that some of the social responsibility is on us as consumers. It is only fair that we be made aware of where our products are manufactured and by whom they are made by. I personally