© Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Marketing, IIM Kozhikode. Views are personal.

Recently, Krispy Kreme came into the limelight for offering a free glazed donut to anyone in the US who could show a covid vaccination record card. Other companies have also started offering freebies for vaccinations. What’s going on? Why should a donut company care whether people get themselves vaccinated? After all, conventional wisdom tells us that it’s the duty of the government and not private companies to ensure public health.

Indeed, Krispy Kreme has faced criticism for its initiative, because it is offering an unhealthy snack in the interest of driving a public health measure. But what else can a donut company do, especially when it is simply offering a reward for good behavior? As every parent would vouch, rewards are an essential nudge towards desirable actions. In any case, offering something tangible in support of the vaccination effort does seem to be better than capitalizing on the covid situation through messaging in the form of unproductive lip service as this Horlicks ad purports to do. Just as this Dabur ad once did by (insensitively?) showcasing loss of hair caused by cancer.

That said, other companies have found other ways to contribute. Uber and Lyft have started offering free rides to and from vaccination centres. Disney, Walmart, Amazon, Google and others have stepped in by offering facilities and staff for the vaccination effort. Closer home, Infosys, followed by companies such as TCS and Accenture, have offered to cover the cost of vaccinations of employees and family members. All these measures act as nudges in the positive direction, the proverbial carrot for the donkey.

What about nudges through mandates, or the stick for the donkey? Should corporates push for mandatory vaccination for employees? Is it legal to do so? After all corporates do take care of the health of their employees, and many provide medical insurance as well. These are questions that will get answered over time as corporates and governments move along on the road to recovery.

Either way, we see that corporates and government are on the same page – everyone wants to see companies up and running. Virtual meetings and work from home are good, but only when deliberately chosen. And kids want their summer camps. We all want respite from eyestrain (although queues at the airport are no cure for eyestrain). And all of us want our festivals back – be it the noise (and pollution) in Mumbai on ganesh chaturthi or the thirty decorated elephants assembled majestically for the temple festival in a little corner in the southern edge of India.

For the first time, we see that corporates and the government are not at loggerheads. After all, this time is not a case of unsustainable resource consumption or an issue of chemicals in food products, nor is it a case of poor labor conditions or a situation of infringed regulations. If it were any of these, corporates would have fought the government (or withdrawn and relaunched their product as Nestle Maggi did in India). But now, here is a situation that needs concerned effort from everyone. What is beneficial for the people is important not just for governments but also for corporates because employees and consumers are, after all, people.

In normal times, CSR requires the benevolence of corporates, but it seems that these are different times. There is hope in the air and this hope brings with it anticipation of better times – for people, governments, and corporates alike. Especially if corporate efforts to support the vaccine drive can be included under CSR.

P.S. As I am no longer in Mumbai where it was perfectly natural to stop my taxi and jump out on spotting a new donut outlet, I make do with the South Indian vada, a crisper and healthier savory donut!