On Moral Authority
I started talking on Wednesday about so-called civil brands and advertising. I'm going to make one more point today about vague, value-based promises, about this especially dangerous kind of corporate bullshit. I'm going to get kind of preachy too. You've been warned.
The whitepaper on Civil Branding compares the role of brands in today’s society with those of church and state in the past. Brands now “engage [in] wider conversations about how we should think about ourselves as a society.” They play a primary role in informing what we find important, and help us tune our perspectives on it. God help me, I think this is right. But the conclusion – that it is the duty of marketers to help brands advertise with value-based messages, to promote good values – is dead wrong.
When marketers suggest that companies undertake vague, value-based advertising campaigns that are contradicted by their unethical business practices, they are promoting a culture where values are handed down by institutions lacking the moral authority to do so. When companies use advertising to promote values that they don’t instantiate, they drain the meaning out of those values.
Making value-based promises requires moral authority. If you’re a marketer, and you help a company promote a value it doesn’t instantiate, you’re cheapening that value. You’re making a world in which that value means less.
| Tagged with: | Bullsh*t, Civil Branding, Design Ethics, Moral Authority, Posts with Swears in Them, Preachiness, Public Service Announcements, Values, Weekend Ponderables |
Post a comment
Want to know more?
You're reading BlogLESS, a thrice-weekly blog about the ethics of advertising, branding, design, social media and business. We are also fans of zen, although this itself is perhaps not so zen.
Comments on this post
1.
I do agree with all written above.
And of course u can’t say marketers not to promote unethical campaigns because it’s their job or for some of them it’s a kind of mission (i mean work they do). they love it and often don’t even think about results.
i think it’s all about BASIC SOCIETY VALUES which for this
civilization are MONEY.
want to live good – get some money
want a car – get some money.
companies crave for money. the more – the better!
and marketers help them to it..
Trackbacks