How Cultural Blindness Creates Harm for the Globe
- annayoung74
- Nov 18, 2025
- 2 min read
High Stakes of Cultural Misunderstanding
With Nestlé’s infant formula crisis and the outreach of immigrants in “They Keep Coming” and “Remembering the Few,” a theme continues to stand out: that organizations that ignore cultural realities and communication failures hurt people. Each of these cases shows how cross-communication isn’t just translating messages; it’s understanding the experiences and vulnerabilities of the audiences who are retaining those messages. Scholars of public relations are continuously emphasizing how communication rooted in cultural awareness prevents harm and builds trust (Coombs, 2019). The AIDS prevention campaigns in the Africa case relied on Western assumptions of gender norms and behavior changes. However, the messages contradict local beliefs and ignore stigma that is often misunderstood or dismissed. This case reflects the central lesson from global research of public relations that messages cannot succeed when there is failure of acknowledgement of cultural systems of shaping behaviors (Smith, 2021). These results are not ineffective campaigns but are the real consequences of public health.
Poor Messaging Results in Public Crisis
The Nestlé formula controversy shows there is a pattern of devastating clarity. Nestlé assumed that the Western marketing strategies were global and promoted formula in a way that undermined the breastfeeding norms in places that lacked stable income and clean water. The communication within the company misled mothers and also caused sickness and mortality in infants. The PR Daily says, “Global campaigns with no cultural risk assessment create ethical blind spots that turn communication decisions into a crisis of humanitarianism” (Ragas, 2022).
Policymakers failed to understand immigrant communities within Canada, as demonstrated by the "They Keep Coming" case. Outreach efforts didn’t consider language barriers and cultural identities, which led to exclusion. Pew Research demonstrates how immigrant populations respond to stronger messages that affirm identity and reduce threats (Pew Research Center, 2023). Communication that fails to recognize these factors is causing a significant division. The “Remembering the Few” case reveals that cultural context shapes meaning. The wartime narratives that are centered on only dominant voices will leave the entire communities unseen. Public memory requires authentic and ethical storytelling that reflects the experiences of all affected publics, and not the majority.
Cultural Competence is Ethical Competence
Together with each of these cases, it highlights the insight of modern public relations that cultural competence is an ethical obligation and not an option. Whether it’s dealing with immigration or health crises, communicators need to understand the people they are serving. Without any cultural awareness, they are at risk for mistrust, message misinterpretation, and long-term harm. The Institute for Public Relations demonstrated how informed communication is an expectation of ethical practice in global work (IPR, 2022). Ethical communication never begins with persuading people; it starts by understanding them.
Keywords: public relations ethics, cross-cultural communication, vulnerable populations, global health
References
Coombs, W. T. (2019). Ongoing Crisis Communication. SAGE Publications.
Institute for Public Relations. (2022). The Role of Cultural Competence in Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/
Pew Research Center. (2023). Immigrant Experiences and Identity. https://www.pewresearch.org/
Ragas, M. (2022). Ethical blind spots in global campaigns. PR Daily. https://www.prdaily.com/
Smith, R. (2021). Strategic Planning for Public Relations. Routledge.
Comments