EDITORIALS
Can You Leave Your Morals at the Ad Agency’s Door?
Call them morals, ethics, beliefs, principles, I don’t want to get into semantics here. You live your life by a certain set of rules, and we all have a slightly different set. Anyone who reads my column regularly knows I lean very far to the left on most issues, and that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. And I really don’t care. In the same way, you shouldn’t care if your views piss people off either.
But when it comes to doing the job we do, is the best creative work done by people who don’t give a flying fuck about their morals when they cross the agency threshold? Or by people who can, by some extreme act of willpower, disengage emotions and just get on with the job? There have been several times in my life when my morals were really pushed to the limit.
It started in my first ever job out of college. It was, by no stretch of the imagination, a job that was a million miles away from the glitz and glamor that I thought advertising was all about. Most of my time in the first six months was spent working on credit card mailers, slimming products, local car ads and other such crap. There were bigger, more glamorous accounts at the agency, but they were reserved for teams that were not fresh out of college. Those accounts were earned.
Then, one day, the creative director said he was giving us a chance to work on a big account. But it had one slight drawback. He knew both my partner and I were anti-smoking, and it was a cigarette account. To be precise, a cigarette account in a country that was very poor.
Hmm. Do we want to say no, and delay the chance to work on great accounts for another six months? Or do we do it, and sell poisonous shit to people who cannot afford it, and will go hungry in order to buy a pack?
We chose the latter, to our shame. And we did a cracking job on it too, with the campaign being loved by the client and outperforming any previous campaign by a good 20%.
YES! We had succeeded…in selling more death sticks to people in poverty than any previous team before us. Talk about a double-edged sword.
Over the years, other such challenges have raised their heads. Most of the time, I kick my morals or beliefs to the curb and just get on with the fucking job. I’m a professional, I get paid to keep the clients happy, and my personal beliefs have no room at the conference room table.
Being such a lefty liberal, I had to bite my tongue and advertise a Republican candidate on more than one occasion. He wasn’t even a moderate. He was the kind of guy Rush Limbaugh would consider a bit too right wing. And yet, I did it, and he got elected on the back of the work we did.
I still regret that one. Much like a lawyer who gives a criminal the best possible defense, I did the best job I could on his campaign. Should I have thrown it?
I’ve also been directly responsible for pushing ads that I knew, beyond a reasonable doubt, were “conning” people out of their money. Everything was legal, but my God, I certainly walked the line. Thankfully, that company is out of business now.
I could go on, but I am way more interested in what you have to say. Maybe this is some kind of catharsis for me, to see if I’m not the only one who says “fuck it” to my beliefs in favor of doing a good job (and keeping it).
Would you work on the “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” campaign if you were a strict vegetarian or vegan? And could you really do a great job, even if you try and kick your own beliefs to the curb?
Could you advertise alcohol if you were on the wagon? Could you really convince other people to drink booze even though you’re off it for good?
What if you’re anti-war? Would you happily work on the Army or Marine Corps accounts? Would you do it begrudgingly? Would you “just say no?”
Could you ever work on advertising for the KKK? What if your job depended on it? Would you do a piss poor job if you had no other choice?
In the past, when it was easy to go from job to job, having morals was a little easier. It was possible to turn down some accounts, or raise objections if pitching for work that you believe the agency just should not have.
But these days, with the industry (especially in Denver) being so fragile and work being so hard to find, could you dare stand up for your beliefs and sacrifice a good job? Would that make you feel better, when you had no food to put on the table for your family that night?
We all, to some extent, do things we don’t like to do for money. No one really wants to work on shitty credit card mailing packs. No one likes doing godawful radio spots for local clients. It pays the bills, and we know it.
But where is the line, and when do you refuse to step over it? Do we, as advertising professionals, have any right to let our own personal morals and beliefs interfere with the job we are being paid to do?
Go on then. Chime in.
Felix is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He’s been in the ad game a long time, but he’s still young enough to know he doesn’t know everything. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He's been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does.
Comments
I had a wise professor in college who cautioned us to decide then where we would draw the lines of what we would and would not work on. That way, once we're out in the real world, the decision has already been made. Though very difficult and painful at times, that advice has served me well.
I've had to pass on taking several jobs over the years because they wanted me to work on accounts I won't work on. Which, as you said, was much easier when jobs were plentiful. But since this most recent economic downturn, after having been laid off, I was offered an ACD position in the city I wanted to live in, for good money. Then they told me what account I'd be on, and it went against my beliefs. If I'd have had to make the decision right then, I don't know what I would've done. But I decided long before that moment, and subsequently didn't take the job. The next year and a half of unemployment made me often think about that decision. It was a very difficult time. But I eventually landed another job.
Brian Tracy said, "Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution long after the emotion with which it was made has passed." Is it really something I believe in if I turn away from it when that belief is tested? If I don't hold firmly to my moral and ethical principles, by definition I lack sound character and integrity.
So what we're left with in this industry, or any other, is a choice. I'm glad I made mine long ago.
And here lies another problem in the world of this industry. It all seems to boil down to if one won't do it, you'll be passed over for one who will.
An entire industry who works scared.
Agencies doing things cheaper and faster, making less profit, over- working skeleton crews, out of fear another agency will do it if they don't.
And the attitude of a creative working on boring projects and forgoing their values just for a chance to work on a bigger project. Out of fear if they don't they may never get to.
It's all stupid.
Is it silly to think that creative people work better on accounts they believe in? That's what I hope, but I am still relatively new at all of this.
Anyone have an opinion on that thought?
That was the main benefit of being self employed. I could make the decision who I was willing to take on as a client, and only turn out work I was proud to claim was mine. Hated to walk away from the projects sometimes, but it was worth it. Don't have that choice at an agency.
This is a really important subject matter. Thanks for writing about this, Felix. And good comments so far.
So the good 'ole double-edged sword is at play here, per its usual, right? There's the benefit of us being a consumer-driven world, in that we can really impact people -- often through advertising -- in meaningful ways. Often more importantly, we can listen to people so much more honestly than before. The bars have been raised {and drinks at the bar have been raised... shot in honor or ethical advertising? ...}, and consumers expect .... well, exactly what they want and when they want it. Which can be tough for advertisers, but also makes it much easier for us to stick to what we believe, fight for what is 'right' in our minds and refuse to work on clients / brands that don't align with those values. Yeah, yeah, the economy sucks, but I think working at a coffee shop or local diner just to make ends meet while you're looking for a client or agency {or creating one} that values - well, anything more than bottom line - is a much more credible life than one of perpetual selling out because we're fearful of having nothing.
I think accepting work you don't believe in only perpetuates the availability of work you don't believe in. But it works in reverse, too. If we only work for what we believe in, and we are all constantly fighting for better --- from our clients, from our agencies, from ourselves -- naturally and collectively we will raise the status quo. We will be surrounded by more opportunities for 'better', and we won't be suckling at the teet of the awful 'man' any more .... but instead helping lead the way to 'better.
Back to the other side of that double-edged sword of our consumer-driven world ... thing is, even though we have more opportunities than ever for 15-seconds of fame, for or opinions to matter/to be heard, we've still got all sorts of issues like group-think, apathy, "I'll just buy whatever's cheapest / most convenient / most popular" to deal with. Frankly, we still have really shitty and stupid people buying things, including our time as advertisers. So simply listening to the consumer isn't enough. I think really reading between the lines of what consumers want, and marrying that with authentically reflecting on what can make this situation better needs to happen more often.
In more tangible terms, I'm recommending that we don't work for clients who sell death sticks to poor people if we can avoid it, but if we think we're 'stuck' working for them ... we try to change the story a bit ... move the conversation towards who these poor people are, and why selling them cigarettes is or isn't a way to make these people's lives 'better' ... maybe there's a spin we can convince the cigarette companies to buy into. Granted, it's a stretch, and maybe an annoying one, but hear me out --
People smoke mostly because their friends do, it's something to do, it's a conversation-starter, a nervous habit, whatever it is.. people start smoking because of other people.... and that basic human desire, to be in community, to be affirmed by your peers ... to be a part of a group... maybe even admired within that group.... to be viewed as 'cool' ... all of that stuff can be fulfilled in healthy ways. In fact, I think mot of our desires can be. Again, this is a stretch, but I'd try to rework the cigarette company's big mission. Think really ahead of our time. Recommend cigarette companies do something useful with all the cigarettes they have in stock right now, and then recreate their mission, keeping the real 'value' of a cigarette in mind. Sell community building instead of cigarettes. Think bigger.
Ah, I think this is still abstract. Maybe an example will help ...
The Post Office ... they were too narrow in their vision. They focused on mail. Their real focus should have been communication, connecting people, story telling/sharing. The United States Postal Service SHOULD have flourished with the internet, excelled in the world of social networking and emailing ... really, the Post Office should have owned those worlds. And I believe they would have, if they had dreamed bigger, and thought a bit further into the future than they did.
I know the comparison isn't entirely parallel, because the USPS has never have the uphill battle to climb that cigarette companies have ... .unless we find out that mail kills? .... but the point is, if cigarette companies are going to survive, much less flourish, they need to be thinking bigger than they are now. And just like we advertisers, they need to figure out how to make things better instead of settling for what is available to them out of fear.
Back to the more tangible reco for ethical advertising, specifically regarding the cig challenge .... if you're going to work for a client you don't believe in, fight 'til your last day in the office {which, yeah, may be in the same week as your first if you keep proposing shit like this, but at least you go out with a bang, right?} to tun that client into something you can believe in.
But do not waste your brilliance, your creative passion, your idealism and romantic idea of what advertising is and can be .... don't waste it on bullshit you know is harming the world.
Also, get over yourself {I'm referring to the universal "yourself", no one in particular} enough to realize that this doesn't mean you need to draw your line in the sand every time you just happen to not care about a client's product. It's not a waste of talents to get behind something you don't particularly care about; it's actually a great way to challenge your talent ... to develop it .... to think even more creatively ... when you're working on a client whose products bore you. But if the client work isn't just boring, isn't just "meh, not your fave" ... but it's something you morally oppose, you've dedicated any part of yourself to fighting against - hellll no, you shouldn't give in. Life is too short for that.
Well, this is a much longer comment than I was planning on leaving. And I'm actually still overflowing with thoughts on the matter. But I'll spare you for now and leave you with this attempt at a nutshell:
Advertiser's Guide to Ethics
1. AIM to work for clients believe in, causes you'd fight for for free, brands you think make the world better.
2. NEVER SETTLE for clients that make the world selectively worse, products that seriously and blatantly oppose your beliefs - UNLESS you are doing everything in your power to CHANGE the way those shitty clients are impacting our fabulous world.
3. Put your HEART & SOUL into whatever work you do, never using 'boring' as an excuse ... truly creative people can get excited about most anything, as long as it's something that truly excites someone. I think this piece from J.K. Rowling's Harvard Commencement speech says this well:
"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not and therefore the foundation of invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatrix capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared."
Oh, and very lastly, realize that we are living in seriously one of the most exciting times in history. In a time where we actually do have the power / control to change the things we think suck and to make everything better. We can't waste this time and our talents on short-term personal advancement that has a long-term destructive impact on our world.
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