"The Corporation" Response (Week 5)

The Canadian Documentary "The Corporation" is a interesting film that sheds light on the truth behind the world's largest corporations and their media outlets (both the good and the bad). The question "What is a corporation?" was answered in a unique manner in this film. From what I watched, I understood that a corporation is a large institution that is a part of the life of every person in the world; it is the most dominant institution in our modern society. (This is a fact that I already knew but didn't pay to much attention to in the past simply because it has always been there.) Additionally, corporations have an excess amount of wealth and power, which is a problem for many people because they view this business as society's "bad apple". When I thought about it, I could not picture a world without the large corporations of today and all of the brand names that have been presented to me through the media outlets. I unfortunately do not know a world without a McDonalds, a Macys, Toys R Us, Walmart, etc.

Corporations such as McDonalds, Dennys, Disney, the Body Shop, etc are all run by people who are hidden behind large office buildings. I found it intriguing that in one of the chapters of the film the corporation is portrayed as a "person" with rights as opposed to an organization run from inside a structure. I would never in my own personal definition of a corporation define it as a "person" with the same rights as an actual living individual. The fact that lawyers were able to go around the law and allow for 14th Amendment, which was intended for the right of African Americans, to be extended to include corporations was ridiculous.I had no idea that it was possible to gain rights for a business by claiming that it was a "person" and successfully reaping the benefits designed for a human being.

Furthermore, the chapter entitled "Perception Management" described what a corporation is at best. It focused on how the corporate world in essence formulates the patterns and habits of our daily lives. Corporations do not only us advertise products to us but sell us a way of life. Each of us is being sold a story about what corporations think life should be like. These large businesses try to define who they are as people and try to relate to us by presenting their corporation as a "person" but what they are really doing is determining our freedom from behind the scenes. It was made apparent to me that there have been decades worth of propaganda that have been used to educate the public in consumer habits. We are told to consume a certain way of life and believe that what we do and buy is a result of our own will, which it certainly is not. We are told what we should by, how we should act, what is good, and what is bad by an industry only concerned with itself. Rich men who are out of touch with a majority of the population are making these decisions for a public that they can not relate to. The decisions that they make come from their reality (having money), not the reality of the rest of the world (most of whom don't have that much money).

Corporations essentially advertise a way of thinking. They tell their audience a story about who they are as people, what they should be like and make people believe that the images that are presented to them depict real life. Most consumers don’t know that the clothes they buy are produced by exploited workers. For items that cost $14.99 in America, the workers are paid 78cents in third world countries. As consumers we purchase items that are sold for hundreds of dollars when the workers (poor men, women, and children) only receive about 40cents on average, which is appalling. The film also used a really good example of how corporations have a way to make you think that by purchasing a certain item or label you are supporting a good cause. A segment displayed the use of the label "Kathy Lee" and promoted it as being a humanitarian brand that supported helping children when in fact 13 year old children were the ones producing the items consumed. What were people supporting when they bought a "Kathy Lee" Brand item? How do you support a brand that is intended to help children when you have children making the clothes? Does that mean one then supports low cost child labor? It's funny to actually take notice to how easily big businesses get away with lying and cheating.

Such devious acts are part of the reasons why corporations use Public Relations to enforce their good will and image upon us. P.R representatives help corporations have a voice, build business, and make them appealing. (eg. environmental campaigns)These economic giants are selling their role in society to create an image of being a regular person so that they in turn can appeal to the "Average Joe" who doesn't know any better. That is why it is important to be able to deconstruct the messages presented to us as consumers so that we don't fall into the pattern of accepting everything we are told. Some of the things that the consumer isn't told is that these corporations (eg. Shell) are responsible for creating chemicals that never existed before that are harmful not only to our environment but to humans and animals alike. Corporations have the means and power to produce chemicals for any purpose at absolutely no cost, which presents a huge disregard for human safety, especially if the risks are ignored in the hopes of gaining a profit. All of the chemicals used in our products are responsible for contributing to negative societal outcomes such as the cancer epidemic and infection of our food supply through the use of harmful hormones. (eg. cows injected with RBGH, which infected the animals' utters and our milk supply) The behind-the-scenes occurrences and wrongs are not displayed in the promotion ads and commercials; one must dig deeper and understand the reality of the corporation.

But what kind of person is corporation? A corporation has no moral conscious; it is an organization, not a single person like the documentary presents. There are numerous people running the corporations that dictate our lives who we know nothing about. They as "people" should have some sense of morality but when it comes down to it they only cares about their stakeholders and profit. The bottom line for a corporation is to make as much money as possible while maintaining all of the power and wealth in the community while disregarding the well-being of others.