Waving the Flag (Hunter Field Editor’s Note)

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I awoke a week ago to the annual flood of emails promoting some of the year’s lowest prices “in celebration” of Memorial Day.

Politicians, corporations, influencers and the like took to social media to signal to the rest of us how patriotic they are. A few still manage each year to commit the faux pas of wishing everyone a “happy” Memorial Day, our president among them this year.

Memorial Day, of course, isn’t a happy holiday no matter how much we’ve commercialized it and turned it into the unofficial opening weekend of summer.

The way many businesses and public figures treat Memorial Day is the worst kind of virtue signaling around veterans. I became acutely aware of this during my time as a young reporter covering military and veterans affairs at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Similar to Memorial Day, it often felt like a new company or elected official was holding an event to “honor” veterans or give money to a veteran-focused organization every week, inviting this reporter to chronicle it all. Most of these events had no impact beyond the photo op, and I always laughed at one well-known local veteran’s term for them: “Pet-a-Vet” events.

This all had me thinking about corporate charity more broadly. As businesses, it’s worth stopping to consider what our true intentions are and what message we’re sending.

For many companies, it’s because they genuinely care. But for others, charitable giving has become a line item in the marketing budget or a tax strategy. It’s not inherently wrong, but it does risk diluting the true value of community support and missing opportunities for deeper connection, culture and purpose.

I get more press releases about corporate charity than anything else — and more complaints about our decisions not to cover giant check passes.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing your good deeds or patriotism, but if that’s all you’re doing, it’s just marketing.

Memorial Day, for example, isn’t just a long weekend or an opportunity for patriotic display. It’s a solemn reminder of lives lost in service to our country. If a business truly wants to honor that sacrifice, what is it doing throughout the year to support veterans or Gold Star families? That could mean partnering with workforce programs for returning service members or donating money, and time, to organizations that meet the needs of military families, especially those left behind by service members killed while serving our country.

The same goes for other types of causes. If you’re giving only when the cameras are on, you aren’t giving; you’re trading. And consumers, especially younger ones, are savvy enough to tell the difference.

True corporate citizenship demands more. It invites your leadership team to pick causes that align with your company’s values and encourages employees to be part of the giving process.

That approach makes for something much better than a headline.

Email Hunter Field, editor of Arkansas Business, at hfield@abpg.com