Pro-Social Marketing: The Mirror or Veil?

The multitude of interconnected, multi-scalar issues facing humanity and the collective natural world frame corporate pro-social strategic communications within the United States. Organizations from across sectors are collaborating, brands are becoming activist, and corporations are using media platforms to speak out on a range of issues. The study deals with the emerging phenomena of purpose-led marketing and social impact communications from an agency standpoint. More precisely, the study uses a critical constructivist grounded theory to provide an understanding of the role of communications and agency inter-action that span across corporate sectors and society.The study advances academic knowledge across cross-sector collaboration, corporate social responsibility, communications, marketing, and social change. The conceptual and theoretical findings provide an in-depth practitioner narrative and relational view of pro-social communication. The agencies facilitate sectoral transformation and provide value-mediation between organizations, society, and stakeholders. The study discusses the participant’s action-based storytelling approach to cultural and structural social change.