The image of companies working hard to make the world a better place is too often just that - a carefully manufactured image - says Behind the mask: the real face of corporate social government, a report timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum of business leaders, meeting in Davos in January 2004. The report, by Christian Aid, targets the misuse of ‘corporate social responsibility’ - or CSR - which is now seen as a vital tool in promoting and improving the public image of some of the world's largest companies and corporations. But, according to the case studies in this report - featuring Shell, British American Tobacco and Coca Cola - the rhetoric can also mask corporate activity that makes things worse for the communities in which they work. For example, Shell in Nigeria claims that it has turned over a new leaf there and strives to e ‘good neighbour ', says the report. Yet it still fails to quickly clean up oil spills that ruin villages and runs 'community development' projects that are frequently ineffective and which sometimes even widen the divide in communities living around the oilfields,” says Christian Aid.