“But shouldn’t we be doing more with this great set of skills and talent?”
Here’s an article that suggests advertising creatives should be doing more to help the world.
One of the things he suggests is to ‘reimagine our mission as a profession’. By that he seems to mean that we should look at socially improving issues rather than the more corporate stuff we generally take on (he also says millennials are very keen to do jobs that make a difference, and that if we want to attract them then we should add in that aspect to what we offer).
It’s an interesting point. I think we, as an industry, generally do a lot of work that’s for the greater good, but I also think that, if we’re honest, it’s usually a thinly-veiled way of showing off, a chance to offset the extent to which we grease the wheels of capitalism, and a straight shot to winning awards (and getting paid more as a consequence). If it was baked in to the job and process, perhaps it wouldn’t be so mixed up in terms of its motives and rewards. Then again, maybe that doesn’t matter. If good is done, does it matter why?
But I wonder about the extent to which our socially conscious efforts actually ‘move the needle’. If the incentives included the alteration of the planet, perhaps we’d try harder, but perhaps it seems these problems are too difficult to solve. We all know that the planet is hurtling towards some kind of environmental oblivion; we all know that the gun culture in America is resulting in thousands of needless deaths every year; we all know that the reverse Robin Hood culture of making the poor pay for the rich to get richer is immensely fucked up. But what are we to do about it?
In all modesty I’d suggest that bigger brains than the ones that inhabit our industry are having a great deal of difficulty improving the above, so what chance do we have?
Well, I’d venture we all have a massive chance. There’s absolutely no reason why another Gandhi can’t appear gently to change life for millions. There’s absolutely no reason why one of us can’t reframe the argument for climate change so that doing anything to make the situation worse becomes anathema to all of us, including politicians. And there’s absolutely no reason why we should think any of that is impossible.
I’m as guilty of the paralysing apathy/intimidation by the seemingly impossible as everyone else, but I also believe that these are issues that can be solved by communication, and that’s supposed to be what we’re great at.
Go on, you have nothing to lose but a terrible world that’s a horrendous nightmare in which to exist!
Whilst i agree that we should be putting our creative talents to better use and perhaps helping the world. I find this do-gooding a little shallow. I only say this as a lot and i do mean a lot of creatives are only interested in doing such projects so they can win a Cannes, or a white pencil. I remember a conversation i had recently. Everyone in the room agreed that the idea would benefit underprivileged children. But unless we made it by March, then was no point as we couldn’t enter it for Cannes.
It would seem doing good for the world is only good if it benefits the people doing it. And for me that goes against what helping really is.
Yep. Sad.
And stupid – there’s always next year’s Cannes!
Surely David Abbot’s approach of doing good work for responsible, decently-minded clients, and rejecting the crasser bandwagons our industry likes to jump on, is still the best way of doing business in the long-term?
If the ads on at the moment are any guide to the amount of talent and skill out there perhaps we shouldn’t bother. I think we’d only make things worse.
Hi Ben,
How’d you get on with that Water Water Everywhere app. Do you think it achieved anything? Is it something you’re glad you invested your time in?
I think Mr Crescendo may have a point. I mean, have you had a look at this years Campaign Annual? OK, it’s not exhaustive (or free of editorial bias) but really, what a shit year in the ad business it appears to have been.
The only reason a production company or director is willing to work for practically free on a so called “charity job” is because the idea is usually better than the shit they normally get to do and it might win an award and get them some better work. Same goes for creatives. We pretend to give a shit but we don’t. That’s our business and I don’t mind it one bit.
@Butterbean: I’m definitely glad I did it, but for various reasons…
I think I managed to highlight that issue to a decent-sized audience using zero cash.
I learned about what it takes to make an app.
I met some lovely people, some of whom made a very good ad for me (thanks!).
But… It clearly did not move the needle one iota and In the last year or two I’ve done nothing about it. I wanted to send things over the same tipping point that plastic bag use seemed to reach a while back, but I failed. If I cared more I’d have done something about it.
I think that’s what we all have to accept: when it comes to doing something to really improve things we often prefer the alternative (whatever that may be).
Yeh, fair enough.
At least it’s something to chat to St Peter about at The Pearly Gates.
At the moment my conversation with him it’s looking pretty short…
If we want to do something else, we will. If the writer of that article wants to do more good, then he can.
I’m getting sick of people telling other adults to be better people. Sanctimonious cunts. Just sort your own shit out.
As Billy Joel once sang, ‘The world is hardly our fucking fault, mate.’
seriously, do we really believe people who have a hard time selling yoghurt can make a world a better place?