An evil corporation ignores social responsibility,

morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

, and sometimes laws in order to make profit for its shareholders. In rare cases, the corporation may be well intentioned but extremist, engaging in noble cause corruption.

In fiction

The notion is "deeply embedded in the landscape of contemporary culture—populating films, novels, videogames, and more." The science fiction genre served as the initial background to portray corporations in this dystopian light. Evil corporations can be seen to represent the danger of combining

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

with larger hubris. Some notable uses of the trope include the Tyrell and Wallace corporations in '' Blade Runner'', Arasaka Corporation in ''

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

'', Weyland-Yutani in '' Alien'', Vault-Tec in ''Fallout'', InGen in ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

'', Resources Development Administration (RDA) in ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

'', Umbrella Corporation in '' Resident Evil'', E-Corp in '' Mr. Robot'' and Lumon Industries in '' Severance''.

Real-world usage

Some real-world corporations have been accused of being evil. To guard against such accusations,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

used the official motto " Don't be evil" until the formation of Alphabet Inc. Rob Enderle argued that this motto was never truly followed, and critics of Google have accused the company of "evil" acts such as secret

data collection Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...

, violating customers' privacy, and political bias. The motto was eventually moved to the very end of its

code of conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norm, norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is comm ...

. ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' wrote that "many food activists consider Monsanto (which later merged with

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

) to be ''the'' definitively evil corporation". ''The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility'' wrote, "For many consumers,

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

serves as the evil corporation prototype, but record numbers shop at the stores for low prices." In Japan, a committee of journalists and rights activists issues an annual "corporate raspberry award" known as Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award (also called the Black Company Award) to a company "with a culture of overwork, discrimination and harassment". After the shooting of Brian Thompson in December 2024, many

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

used social media to express their outrage against

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

companies and the American healthcare system overall, often using terms associated with the trope to describe these corporations.

References

External links

Sample list of evil corporations in film
at '' MTV''
Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction
at '' PC World''
Sample list of evil corporations in science fiction books
at Barnes & Noble {{Science fiction Science fiction themes Cyberpunk themes Anti-corporate activism Tropes Fiction about organizations Dystopian fiction Corruption Corporate conduct

In fiction

Real-world usage

See also

References

Further reading

External links