Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference dedicated to corporate social responsibility, including methods for studying social change. The guest speaker at the conference was Professor Anna Giza-Poleszczuk from the University of Warsaw, who put forward the thesis that the foundation of good, healthy societies lies in good, healthy interpersonal bonds, based on trust, a sense of justice, and psychological safety. What does business have to do with this?

Indeed, business can promote positive values, show good examples, build trust, and support family and social ties.

As I listened to the Professor and later discussed the challenges facing business in the context of social responsibility and evaluating the effects of social programs run by companies, I was reminded of the work we all do at Jet Line to identify values important to us – the company's employees – and what forms the basis of the Rejs Odkrywców Foundation established by Jet Line. (The Foundation's goal and mission is to initiate and implement activities that promote passion and activity as a lifestyle model in which work, cooperation, friendship, and responsibility are values. We share our sailing passion, discover strengths and interests that are good to develop, and acknowledge weaknesses worth overcoming. We help build, restore, and maintain family, friendly, and social ties, because we see in them an opportunity to choose a different path than addiction, violence, and pathology).

I believe that although a company is established to make money, it also faces other important tasks. It is very good if these tasks stem from the company's spirit and are linked to the values of the people working in it, because then they have a chance to be realized and actually bring about social change.

It happens that, dealing with various campaigns and, more broadly, manifestations of communication on a daily basis, I look at advertising campaigns of different companies, from very different industries, from a different perspective. For example, today I looked at an advertisement for Prudential from a different perspective.

Prudential, an insurance company with roots in Great Britain, insured the lives of over 4,500 people in Poland before World War II – more precisely, 4,623 people purchased insurance policies (history, as we know, likes to round to zero, but it matters: over 4,500 people or 4,623 people). After the outbreak of the war, Prudential withdrew from occupied Poland. It returned last year, and although most documents were lost, Prudential made an effort to find the heirs of former clients to pay them compensation. According to information provided by the company, documentation for 2,700 people was successfully reconstructed, and 75% of them received their due payments. The current advertising message in the media was built upon the authentic stories of these individuals.

I admit, it moved me. The emotions probably resonated because the communication refers to values that are personally close to me, and thanks to last year's workshops, I know they are also close to the people I work with. I don't know how much truth there is in the stories told by Prudential. I know it's a commercial. But I like it when advertising and communication are consistent with what the advertising company does and how it does it.
You can find one of Prudential's commercial films here: