ABSTRACT
‘The development of the corporate image became a phenomenon of the 1980s as business realised that it had to sell itself as well as its products.’ While this is a statement from a study of media coverage of business (Tumber 1993: 358), similar observations have been made by commentators from other perspectives. White (1991: 181), reflecting on modern public relations, notes how ‘business organizations are now expected to meet social and political objectives, as well as those of profit and employment’. Schumann et al. (1991), writing from an advertising perspective, foresee ‘an expanded role for corporate advertising in the future’, for three reasons: environmental concern, the rising importance for the general public of certain social issues (e.g. gender) and increasing global competition in the economic realm. Perhaps to this should be added the need for business to attempt to counteract what is perceived to be anti-business editorial coverage in the media.
