Socially responsible marketing is a marketing philosophy that a company should take into consideration; "What is in the best interest of society in the present and long term?" Overview Socially responsible marketing is critical of excessive consumerism and environmental damages caused by corporations. It is based on the idea that market offerings must not be only profit-driven, but they must also reinforce social and ethical values for the benefit of citizens. The idea of socially responsible marketing is sometimes viewed as an extension of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is promoted as a business model to help companies self-regulate, recognizing that their activities impact an assortment of stakeholders, including the general public. CSR is sometimes described in terms a pyramid, starting with economic as its base, then legal, ethical and philanthropic actions at the top. It is in the last two layers of the CSR pyramid, ethical and philanthropic, that socially responsible marketing opportunities appear the greatest. Meeting the first two layers, economic and legal, are necessary for a business to thrive in order to engage in the later two. Socially Responsible Marketing and Ethics Social responsibility in marketing is often discussed with ethics. The difference between the two is that what’s considered ethical in terms of business, society and individually may not be the same thing––nor do all business actions necessarily have to be socially responsible in order to be considered ethical. Some viewpoints of socially responsible behavior espouse that the qualifying marketing actions not simply meet the minimum ethical guidelines of business, but voluntarily exceed them. The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has laid down some rules which suggest that all marketing communication should be socially responsible. Therefore any content which is irresponsible or incites such behaviour from the audience can be brought to the concern of the Authority. A variety of topics such as alcohol, violence, objectification, body image, drugs, tobacco, etc fall under the socially irresponsible category when used inappropriately by the marketer. As a Response to Mainstream Marketing Socially responsible marketing emerged as a response to questionable marketing practices that have adverse effects on society. The major economic criticisms that the conventional private marketing system receives from are as follows: Mainstream marketing strategies generally lead to high prices. Due to the size of the chain of intermediaries in marketing, the distribution of commodities to consumers costs a lot. As a result,