Business and social responsibility

There is a general perception that business and social responsibility don't go along with each other. When I think of it, there are several questions that prop up in my mind. Should business plans and business models have morality, like human beings are supposed to have? Can we say that Pepsi, even though a profitable business, has no morality because all the profit it musters is by selling a carbonated drink that has no proven health or nutritional benefits to its customers? In fact, drinking Pepsi will give consumers bad teeth and tossed up digestive cycles. I would say yes, Pepsi as a company has no moral responsibility. Its products are just pushed to consumers through bulk production, combined sales with other junk food such as pizzas and Pepsi markets itself through celebrities in mindless campaigns which ultimately misleads its consumers, mostly teens and youngsters into more consumption.
Pepsi doesn't force consumers but just sells. Obviously, the consumer wants Pepsi otherwise there is no logical explanation for the Pepsi sales. Liquor and tobacco sales fall under the plank but the sales of liquor and tobacco don't affect a wide range of consumers as Pepsi does. For instance, in a given population of 100, there can be 50 who smoke, and this 50 would be mostly adults. There can be 50 who drink, mostly adults again. But in a population of 100, almost 80 would drink Pepsi and this comprises of children and adults. What makes it worse is that Pepsi unlike tobacco and Liquor alters the food consumption habit of the population, driving them towards unhealthy food habits like regular consumption of fast food and junk food.
Pepsi as a company that sells carbonated drinks and fried foods has its fair share in causing Obesity, a growing problem among urban dwellers in most parts of this world. So having said all this I wonder about Pepsi's view point about business sustainability. I guess, for any business the well-being of its customer is its prime concern, so when the well-being of Pepsi's consumers is jeopardized by consumption of its own products, how does Pepsi view this? I understand that recently, they've ventured into the fruit juice selling business. Are they trying to redeem themselves by at last selling something that their customer can find some value in? Again, I wonder at the notion of corporate social responsibility of companies like Pepsi. I feel that it would be a joke if Pepsi contributes towards humanitarian causes from the money they've got by running a business that has no morality.

nike, fila, puma, adidas, reebok

I like Nike is an understatement, especially the latest shoes they've introduced. I've always wondered what makes me like nike, its definitely not because that rafael nadal endorses nike. there is something more, every new shoe they introduce appeals to me. Its not just the colours but it is the design overall. If you have noticed closely, nike shoes are sleek, while for instance reebok and adidas still have the previous generation shoes that look heavy and boxy(I feel reebok especially sucks big time). And one more thing I've noticed that nike has done in its new shoes is that, the swoosh logo of nike is predominantly displayed. Is this scrap sounding like a marketing analysis? ok, this is my blog, and I can write whatever I want, so carrying on.

So, coming back to nike, its a good example of cashing on the charisma factor of the brand and I can see clearly that nike has been concentrating on the range of slick looking shoes along with endorsements from big stars like federer, nadal and sharapova. btw the red dress that sharapova wore for US open wasn't that cool, so thats nike for you people. the closest competitor for nike I feel is adidas. fila looks better than reebok but I feel their shoes are not upto the level we are discussing here.
Guys out there who love nike, come join the bandwagon, those who are reebok fans come lets discuss. ah, I almost forgot puma, i haven't seen much of it considering the fact that they've just opened shop in India, but me being a HUGE ferrari fan i love puma too :) especially those puma shoes with the prancing horse on.