An Interview from the Sustainable Brands Conference ’09 with Kellie A. McElhaney, PhD, UC Berkeley

PART THREE: The Rules of Engagement

Kellie could tell that just like everyone else at Link TV, I am very nervous about how we are going to start accepting corporate sponsorship. I mean, what drew me to want to work for Link TV in the first place was the boundless freedom that our network shelters. No allegiances means no obligations. At Link TV our only obligation has been to tell the truth. 

Similarly, working in academia, Kellie has created a situation for herself where even though she just received a ten million dollar grant from Dow Chemical (which she admits a lot of people really freaked out about), she is protected by academic freedom. So Dow, according to Kellie, in no way can tell her what kind of research Berkeley can publish even if it’s negative towards the company! She suggested that when we start to work with corporations, Link TV must also write in some sort of journalistic freedom clauses, “Something that states clearly to the sponsor what it means for Link TV to accept money from them– here’s how it’s going to be used, here’s the disclaimers, and if we come across some negative information about you (the sponsor), we are going to have to run it, and hopefully you would be responsive.” According to Kellie, a company like Nike would want to respond, because they don’t want to see a chill in the debate, “They know that is how fallacies get spun into realities.”

That last comment prompted me to tell Kellie that I’ve heard that the more money a corporation has, the more they are able to "greenwash" themselves. I explained that it has been difficult for Link TV to really trust even the most reputable rating systems for CSR in our research. Kellie’s response took me by surprise: “You know, I just read a really interesting statistic that greenwashing is more of a phenomenom that media has construed and less of a reality. There are very few companies who are lying, it’s just a stupid strategy. You could lie on your product and there will be one hundred Youtube videos within a minute, or seven thousands tweets, within a MINUTE that will get the truth out! So even though there are bad people in the world, there are very few who will lie or spend money on branding that is a lie, because if they do it they are going to get caught.”

One of Kellie’s rules, which she is pretty adamant about, is to never work with the corporate handlers, whose jobs she says are to often times obscure the truth. She advises going straight to the company itself, ideally the head of CSR, illuminating that PR agencies and the branding people typically don’t know what the company’s CSR strategy is. 

This lack of holisticity made me wonder if I personally have mistaken corporate ignorance for corporate greed, which reminded me to tell Kellie that KoAnn Skrzyniarz, creator of the Sustainable Brands Conference, had told me that she truly believes there are just as many good people in the corporate world as there are bad ones. Kellie said she actually thinks there is more good than bad to corporations, “They have probably just become a little passive in assertive their goodness. Good people don’t get press.”

She reminded me again of the Cisco example, and how she believes Cisco of course would not want to be seen as bad just because they laid off janitors. “They probably have really good numbers on why they had to lay them off, but mainstream media now only provides one sided exposés about why companies do what they do. I’ve always thought media has been part of the problem, so I’m glad you want to be part of the solution.”

As Kellie said, “There is definitely an element of fear, and definitely an element of risk, but it’s going to be different from company to company.” She explained how Walmart tends to be pretty risk-averse, but how even they are changing. “I mean they are in their shareholder meeting this week and it’s all on Youtube and Twitter— It’s amazing how much they are opening up.” 

So we’ve got to be brave and open up too. Trust me, it wasn’t easy to write this!  It didn’t necessarily feel right, but it does feel effective— and that’s the empowering, self-sustaining energy that delivers us down from our towers and onto the grounds where a foundation needs to be built for a better future. Our mission here at Link TV has always been to create cross-cultural understanding.  We cannot stop tearing down fences when it comes to corporate culture. With corporations becoming larger than countries and part of all countries, this type of dialogue is perhaps the most powerful one we will ever have on Link TV.

Part Four: Teach Them Well  & Let Them Lead The Way

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