Boooo! – When did the advertisers become the ‘baddies’?
What do we think of the bankers? Grrrrrrr. And the Politicians, with all their crafty expenses? Let’s all throw our shoes at them (or maybe just our socks, shoes are expensive). What about those unscrupulous, phone-hacking tabloid journalists? Put them in a wheelie bin and catapult the fiends into a volcano filled with angry wasps.
Knowing who to hate and in which direction to shake one’s fist is usually a fairly straightforward business in this country. It’s even easier if you read the Daily Mail as then you can simply hate everyone as, in all likelihood, they are either a.) stealing ‘your’ job or b.) giving you cancer.
However, I must admit I was a little taken aback last week to discover that my own noble profession of advertising had become subject to a campaign of ‘hate’ (or at least, a fair level of disgruntlement).
Earlier this month, the Brandalism movement declared war on what they saw as the cynical, soulless and thoroughly manipulative agenda of the advertising world. Its guerrilla billboard campaign poked a sharp and accusatory finger firmly in our direction, challenging ‘the authority and legitimacy of the advertising industry’. It also may well have caused a good many of us within the business to question whether what we do is, perhaps, a tiny bit evil.
Personally, I think I’m a fairly decent chap. I haven’t stolen a library book in well over a decade and I doubt there are too many circumstances in which I would feel it was acceptable to punch an orphaned baby gorilla.
But on reflection, I suppose the accusations of trying to influence, manipulate, possibly even control, the thoughts and actions of our fellow human people are something of a ‘fair cop’.
But, is that just a part of the story? Could we argue that advertising, far from being purely cynical, is actually an unabashed platform for hope and aspiration? Do we not relentlessly send out the message that ‘you could live a better life’ or ‘you deserve more’?
Admittedly, the vast quantity of these messages tie inextricably back to the dark heart of consumerism but, still, do we really belong amongst that triumvirate of evil – the bankers, the politicians and the tabloid press – that have persistently, and with remarkable arrogance, demonstrated why they deserve our boos and hisses?
I have no answer to this. I just don’t want people to think I’m with the ‘baddies’. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to steal library books and throw them at lonely monkey babies.
Andrew Boulton is a copywriter (and a pleasant young man) at the Together Agency