Is CSR just a gimmick marketing tool?

I was flying down from Karachi to Lahore and as always had the luxury of sitting in one of those cramped seats of PIA. Anyways, the most interesting part of flying in a jam packed 8 am flight is that you get to see and interact with a lot of professionals from various industries. Just two seats besides me there was this mid aged lady who had the most intense perfume on. Just by looking at her one would sense that she in from an NGO who is running after corporations so that they can give away some of its profit to charity. Interestingly I was reading a very old article written by Milton Friedman, " The Social Responsibility of Business", a 1970 article that got published in the Time Magazine. Friedman is considered to be one of the greatest American economist of all times. He is also famous for being a hard critic of how corporations should or should not give their profit to charity. His main premise is that, a firm is a functioning organ with the CEO running the affairs. His job is to maximize share holders value and if that is his main objective, than who has given him the right to take money of that profit and give it away for free? That led me to the question that is CSR just a gimmick marketing tool for companies? Is Creative Capitalism pointed by Bill Gates the answer to this? For now, do read this article.