Truth and Advertising

I know this seems like an easy target, but I am less interested in taking the gratuitous Mickey at the expense of the ad industry (though, what the hell), than in I am in hearing what other people think about the relationship between advertising and truth. Feel free to chime in as you will, but I actually am deeply interested in serious thoughts on these matters (though fun-poking is absolutely welcome, too).

Ever since I saw an outdoor ad for The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and almost choked on my tongue at the obvious and egregious lack of irony of the campaign’s enthusiastic embrace of, of all things, Truth, I have been dying to blog about it. Talk about people swingin’ outta their weight class.

So I want to test my assumptions about what advertising is and what its value is: especially as the industry expresses more and more interest and investment in social media and even talks about the importance of reframing marketing as conversation,

Below are an interesting catalogue of “critiques” of advertising, created by (to the one, I think) people in the business and in at least one case in the service of the business. What do people think of these?

I believe that increasing advertising much answer for three things:

1. It is the world’s largest producer of garbage: from magazine waste to packaging, directly or indirectly this industry is easily one of the world’s largest polluters. We need to start considering that fact in the context of sustainability.

2. Advertising’s holy grail is mind control rather than persuasion. Huge amounts of money go into tactics and research into how to literally short-circuit people’s thinking and not just influene but cause purchase behavior.

3. Advertising’s effectiveness has not only been called into question by the rise of digital marketing and analytics, but the innovation around increasing effectiveness (thing like neuromarketing) seems not just potentially, but actually sinister.

Here are the EXHIBITS. Watch, reflect, and post!

TRUTH IN ADVERTING

THE VENDOR CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

BRING BACK THE LOVE

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You’re currently reading “ Truth and Advertising ,” an entry on Torch is Wicked

Published:: 6.3.09 / 7am

Category:: Brand, Change, Definitions, Design & Business, Shift, Torch, Wicked Problems

Daniel Rose 6.3.09 / 7am

This post reminds me of the “Ad Week” events being hosted in Toronto by, presumably, the ad industry.

Really? We need a special week celebrating the majesty of advertising? The ads for this celebration of human spirit were also without a trace of irony and were truly sad and hilarious.

Catherine Gordon 6.3.09 / 8am

I love these, and the second video is immediately relevant, sad to say…

However, you’re tackling a huge problem here, Michael. The videos show a broken system (advertisers not giving a shit, clients pushing suppliers around, marketers not thinking about what people really need). But aren’t advertisers really just shilling what manufacturers are producing?

That seems to me to be the fundamental problem. Advertisers may pollute, impose their ideas on consumers and even manipulate their minds, but they’re doing it to sell people goods that they probably don’t need or shouldn’t use, on behalf of the companies that make them.

A company that’s conscious of the impact of its operations on the world (see Umair’s research) will carry that approach through to the products it produces (useful, not harmful), and how they’re advertised.

Long haul, though, because you have to change the perception of value that companies and shareholders have, as well as consumer mindset - there’s a group of folks out there who may never want more than just the newest and greatest, regardless of the impact.

Michael Lewkowitz 6.3.09 / 6pm

Nicely put. The problem lies in what the industry has been created to do - make people buy stuff they don’t need or even which is best accomplished by manipulating a person’s self image as lacking the something that they promise this product can offer. ‘Marketing science’ then could perhaps be considered the science of human subversion.

Of course this also exposes the fact that most companies - even if they start by creating something truly useful and valuable to people and society - invariably become about selling stuff to make the organization grow. And if that’s the goal well - lets hire us some good human subverters.

Basically it boils down to this being the pinnacle of the last century of our industrial evolution of ‘growth is great’. It’s clear now that this ‘biggering is buggering us’ - http://storyofstuff.com for dead simple story line - and we are in a transition, hopefully, back towards making meaningful things that contribute to people’s well being and the betterment of our society.

And in that scenario communities rise and ‘marketing’ dies. But even there, will we find truth? Probably not - but at least we won’t be sold as much of it - and the truth that we do buy probably won’t hurt us so much.

Heh - that was a fun rant. Thanks for the fun post.

negar 6.3.09 / 7pm

Ok, Dila: I have some thoughts on this, but first a question: If advertising were only digital & based exclusively on neuro-research, would it be less wasteful of human resources & of the environment? See I care as much about our effectiveness, our ability to keep our minds clear of riff-raff and chatter, as much as I care about keeping the environment pollution free. We can’t make a difference with all that chatter going on anyway. Would advertising that created less waste on both the human psychological & socio/environmental level be more agreeable if not more truth-based? I actually don’t know what Truth in Advertising might mean, other than, well, you know, you get more or less what you see/hear if not what you see being experienced (which is probably the key to what is “the sinister” in neuro-marketing…to get to you at the level of experience). So while I am concerned with the environmental factors of advertising, I increasingly worry about unnecessary distractions to our effectiveness. And while I am wary of the sinister nature of neuro-marketing, I am also a firm believer in our mental capabilities, our ability to adjust, and our ability to choose. Advertising irritates me. More everyday. I would rather adverts engage my brain effectively than waste my mental capacity with nonsense all day.

In any event. There you have it. Thanks for the post boo.

Kathy 6.4.09 / 8pm

Personally I’ve always had a huge aversion to advertising, even as a kid (I never wanted a Barbie because of that). It doesn’t seem to have changed much since the Mad Men days - companies peddling more goods we don’t need or fantasies of a “better life”. In some cases it even goes beyond peddling fantasy and is somewhat psychologically sinister in a subliminal way - “You’re not cool/ smart/ beautiful/ sexy/ great mother/husband/friend unless you buy this product/service”. (Of course my industry is one of the worst offenders around re. all of the above.)
I skip through ads; flyers that come to my door/mailbox goes directly into the recycling bin; and move on through commercials (except for a weakness for those M&M guys) — and I suspect I am one of a large subset of the population. Yes you’re right, it really is garbage in more ways than one. I’d be more inclined to actually pay attention if advertising were just very matter-of-fact. But of course to cut through the noise, each company/brand/product has to outdo the other, and so it becomes a vicious cycle of fancy packaging. Until we stop wanting to consume it, marketers are going to keep feeding. You can’t fault the devil for tempting you to sell your soul (it’s his job) - but there is always the option to say no.
Thks for opp. to give my 2 cents.

Brian Phipps 6.5.09 / 10am

For me it comes down to “what kind of truth are we talking about?” I think advertising can provide deep truths to customers in terms of new contexts of being and doing associated with a product or service, assuming the product or service has been designed with those qualities. To my mind, ad agencies are really innovation agencies. They should be used in product development to flesh out the manifold customer contexts inherent in different product approaches. These contexts than then be incorporated into product design, where they help “sell themselves” in direct customer use—and deliver value as well.

Restricting agencies to the very end of the development process, where they have to craft pitches to meet someone’s sales quota, is a poor use of their talent. Customers lose, too.

Mind, your business « Patrick Keenan .me 6.6.09 / 11am

[...] Michael Dila over at Torch points at this short-sighted, mis-guided industry of advertising: [...]

paul pangaro 6.15.09 / 11am

user-generated content + zero-cost distribution + brands’ loss of control of conversation = need for greater truth = lifetime customer value; the alternative is death, sooner or later. in sum, transparency forces authenticity, IMO.

olivier clerc 9.22.09 / 8am

Brilliant blog here, and remarks on the point too.
but from now is the shift happening for the second time?
15 years ago, Advertising agencies and multinational communication groups, so called, network started to take share or buy back some of the best design businesses in order to integrate global corporate design in their strategies. Right now, once again, media groups just look watch and start to care their “high interactive” department but as well UX, service design “thinking” to be part of their brand new research labs in order to keep investors flooding money in their powerful media business.
How will this end up?
Design strategy is still having a weak word in front of marketing and media department in corporations, looking for explanations, theories, or excuses to become innovative. Innovation is still far to achieve the race for the fast and impressive ROI stats and tools which is still ruling online media business. Ranking and reputation still lead to blindness reflecting only numbers, nor values neither qualities.
By far “Design,Thinking (or not thinking)” went and still going on the wrong path. We are still duplicating products and services in order to improve and constantly perfecting One which might able to do what people really look for.
On the daily common basis, design is an Aesthetic point of view, cosmetic tools to seduce consumers, and still stands on the big misunderstanding.
the electric car business is still driven by the rules and players based on tradition economic system.
Thank you for the fun worth to ripple for sure. but what next then with design is still a large question of more theory than a real business shift.

I really wish we designers with some film directors will come up with similar vid in order to laugh a bit about ourselves, designers and with our theories in order to shake seriously the business and wake up those well thinking brains for a real engagement of design.

As far as i know advertising still succeed to laugh about themselves.
Are we designers? Are we looking forward?
How come are we able to preach to ourselves how great we are to change the world?
I think this will be at least a fun project to write a great piece out of some our serious bullshits, sometimes.
And now yes now, I want people to watch this piece.
I want a serious laugh about it.

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Truth and Advertising

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