ABSTRACT
Cities across the globe are experiencing massive blockages in their sewer systems resulting in the equivalent of multi-million dollars in repair costs. These cities cite consumers using and flushing non-disposable wipes—labeled and sold by corporations as “flushable”—down toilets as the cause of sewer blockages. This chapter begins with discussion of Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s lawsuit against the city of Washington, D.C. The city passed legislation stating that the company’s wipes must be labeled as “non-flushable.” In response, Kimberly-Clark Corporation sued, claiming that such legislation violated its First Amendment freedom of speech rights—for the company believed its products to be “flushable” and not the cause of sewer blockages, despite the scientific evidence to the contrary. Using this issue as a case for analysis, this chapter firmly connects marketing and political communication as the essential responsibility of corporate citizenship. By dissecting the varied perspectives of this issue, we provide readers with a clear, theoretically informed exemplar of corporate issues management and political public relations that reflects differences in issues management globally. We highlight the complexity of how societies pragmatically deal with abstract constructs such as corporate personhood, (protected) corporate speech, consumer rights, and regulatory (over)reach and the related issues that emerge with each.
