Pesticide companies. Industrial meat processors. A major US political party. What do they have in common?
They’re all clients I refuse to work for. As a copywriter, I’m vain enough to believe my words have power—to persuade, sell and move people to action. And I don’t want to move people to buy pesticides.
Lest you think me a politically correct prig who writes only for organic farmers and crunchy clothes makers, I confess my clients include pharmaceutical manufacturers and a petrochemical company. I’ve made peace with the products I market for these clients, if not the industries themselves.
Likely, you wrestle with similar ambiguities. Because when you write marcom copy—or otherwise market products for others—sooner or later, you face ethical decisions.
How will you make them?
Copywriters’ rock-and-a-hard-place project decisions
Do you really have a choice? Between the lousy economy, content mill outsourcing and industry implosions, it’s harder than ever for freelance writers to command living-wage fees. So when a well-paying—but ethically iffy—job rolls around it’s easy, even understandable, to cop a “beggars can’t be choosers” attitude.
And truth be told, sometimes ethical boundaries aren’t crystal clear. Some products and their makers seem harmless. At first.
Little Red Riding Writer enters the dark woods.
I recently caught a glimpse of marketing’s “dark side” when researching a prospective client, a New York City marketing agency. While visiting their website, I noticed they produced a video for a well-known US bank. Click.
Meet your warm and fuzzy corporate raider.
The video opened with an angled close-up of a pretty gospel singer standing in the bank’s boardroom. (Doesn’t every bank have an on-site soul singer?) Swaying in front of the room’s glass wall, the singer belted a descanted refrain: “The reeeeeeealllllllll thing. Yeaeeeeh….Reeeeaaaaal…”
Then the camera cut to bank employees. Close ups of their faces. Cut ins to their hands. The rank-and-file office workers shared emotional reflections on their relationships with customers. “When customers call, they want to talk to a real person.” “We really care.”
The employees also adored their co-workers. They testified to “being there” for each other. They recalled office birthday parties and stuffed animals planted on workmates’ desks.
Their stories were interspersed with frequent cuts back to the gospel singer, “The reeeeeeealllllllll thing. Yeaeeeeh….Reeeeaaaaal…”
Wow. This place is something special. Unlike most corporate financial institutions, they really care.
Right.
Is manipulative messaging unethical?
It was jarring. Because everyone knows the bank grew fat through cutthroat mergers and acquisitions in the 90s and aughts. During the 2008 financial fire sales, one of their takeovers forced shareholders to lose all their equity.
On the consumer side, this faceless corporate giant is anything but caring. Just try to get a real person on the line when you have a billing question. And you will have questions. Regularly. About their credit cards’ hidden APR hikes, surprise finance charges and sneak service fees that mire countless Americans in consumer debt.
“The reeeeeeealllllllll thing. Yeaeeeeh….Reeeeaaaaal…”
I know, I know. This bank’s practices are no worse than any others’. Industry consolidation is the American way. Robotic voice menus are universal. And consumers choose to go into debt. (I’ll argue this, but not now.)
Where do you draw the line?
So why did the agency’s video rile me so?
Couple of things I can pinpoint. I felt the video was…
Manipulative and deceptive. Yes, all marketing is manipulative in its use of emotion to hook and engage consumers. But this video went too far. It used art, behavioral psychology and technology to grossly misrepresent the bank. It distorted the realities of the company’s culture and customer relations.
Poisoned Kool Aid. Here’s something scarier: The bank—and its marketing agency—may well be unconscious of their deception. In their fervent desire to appear compassionate and caring, they may actually believe their own corporate fairy tale.
So I decided not to pursue work with the bank’s marketers.
Does your work enable big brand dysfunctional thinking?
Despite growing consumer cynicism, many corporations seem oblivious that their brand perception is not shared by customers.
But here’s the question: Do you perceive the dissonance? And if you do, will you still promote the product?
Lorraine Thompson is a freelance New York copywriter. Please contact her to discuss your copy project and content marketing needs. And follow her–WritersKitchen on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Official Start Wars Blog.
Brilliant post Lorraine, and a very pertinent example.
I don’t have an industry I wouldn’t write for, but as you point out, you need to judge every client on their own merits. If they’re expecting me to decieve people, I won’t be impressed.
Our job isn’t to manipulate people, it’s to influence them. And that’s an important distinction. It’s the difference between a respected acquaintance suggesting that buying a product might make you happier, and a snake-oil salesman telling you that thier tonic will grant you eternal health.
Brilliant post Lorraine, and a very pertinent example.
I don’t have an industry I wouldn’t write for, but as you point out, you need to judge every client on their own merits. If they’re expecting me to decieve people, I won’t be impressed.
Our job isn’t to manipulate people, it’s to influence them. And that’s an important distinction. It’s the difference between a respected acquaintance suggesting that buying a product might make you happier, and a snake-oil salesman telling you that thier tonic will grant you eternal health.
Excellent post. I believe that anyone who works in our industry has to answer a few questions for themselves:
1) Do I really believe that my work persuades people – that it can cause people to buy something they wouldn’t have otherwise bought or to buy my brand when they would have otherwise bought a competing brand.
Surprisingly, I often feel that there are no few marketing practitioners who answer these questions negatively. And some fudge it a bit on how much they think they can sway someone. But for those of us who answer in the affirmative, the next question becomes:
2) Are you willing to persuade someone to take an action against their own best interests? Are you willing to con people to make a living?
I have done some Web optimization work for a few self improvement/self help organizations that, to my mind, were a bit “out there,” but I was willing to do it because: a) they believed their own stuff and ate their own dogfood, b) their clients truly felt helped by the products and services, even if the help was mostly from a placebo type effect, and c) the pricing wasn’t outrageous. In other words people may have been buying pablum, but it was reasonably priced pablum that seemed to be doing some good, sold by people who sincerely believed in their magical thinking. OK. I can live with that.
Somewhere there is a balance between understanding that everyone both sees and values things differently – that there’s a butt for every seat and a lid for every pot – and that you, the copywriter, don’t need to stand as judge over the worthiness of a product or service and the equally valid idea that there really are swindlers out there and if you put your talents to work for them you will lower yourself to the level of a con artist.
For a while, there was a direct mail ad placed in several major magazines that advertised rolls of “golden” dollars. These were being hawked as a safe way to store money/value during inflationary times and they used every bit of equivocation and dishonest copy they could to hide the fact that the coins had no gold in them and would only ever be worth their face value. They were swindling people into over-paying for these coins. And this was an extremely well-known and successful direct mail company. To me, that represented a despicable con job. It was like an able bodied man kicking a guy in a wheel chair and taking his money. Simply because the direct mail people were more clever than their customers, they felt OK about fleecing them. Disgusting.
– Jeff
@Andy: Gosh, thanks for your very kind words. In an earlier post I wrote about “falling in love” with products for which I write copy. Naturally, I know the romance has soured when I find the product distasteful–as with pesticides. In that instance, I ended up parting ways with a catalog client once I learned I’d need to position gardening poisons!
@Jeff: You make an excellent point in affirming that people see and value things differently. I learned early on that I am not my customer. I may not have the the same values, taste or disposable income, but I can still credibly sell products they want and need. The “golden dollars” scheme sounds atrocious. Unfortunately, a lot of people–including my own mother-in-law!–fall for these kinds of schemes hook, line and sinker. If it’s the DM company I think it is, I own loads of presidential coins, bisque pill boxes and other pricey tchotchke –gifts from my mother in law–from the same maker!
Great post Lorraine and lots to think about. In a twist I lost a job recently because I wouldn’t have the treatment my client was offering. She wanted me to have a rebirthing session. Now I love free stuff as much as the next person but I drew the line at that!
@Sarah: Love it. Great fodder for Turner Ink Memoirs!
Lorraine – terrific post! Like you, I won’t write for just anyone or any company. They need to fall into my legal/moral/ethical bucket. Most do, some don’t. (I recently turned down a prospective client who wanted me to write a landing page for a Kevin Trudeau product. Client hadn’t heard of Kevin Trudeau. I told him to Google the guy and then he’d understand why I said no.)
As a copywriter, I owe my client my flat-out enthusiasm for the product/service. I can only do that if I become a ‘true believer’ for the short time I’m writing about it.
Hi Lorraine Thompson,
I am agreed with you, Pesticides and industrial meat processors are very harmful for your body. You should not write copy for these companies providing these type of synthetic products. You can go with organic farmers and crunchy clothes makers that are nature friendly.
I think a good copywriter should write towards positive and creative ideas.
@Roberta: Good call on Kevin Trudeau. Just Googled him–interesting, er, rap sheet. Agree 100%–we need to be our clients’ fans. And unless were sociopaths, we can’t feel “flat-out enthusiasm” for a convicted larcenist…
@Copywriter: Pesticides et al are the easy products to walk away from. It’s the sheep-in-lambswool products and services I find a little tougher to discern. ; >
I was really intrigued by the comments. So far, I have only experienced the other side of this coin: loving the product, service, or person I’m promoting. That too has its dangers.
I like what Jeff said. If I answer “Yes, I believe what I write persuades others,” my ethical obligations are clearer to me. I wouldn’t work in a slaughterhouse, so I’d rather not write about one, either. This is also about setting boundaries, something that can be difficult in this industry — we spend a lot of time getting clients. Turning them away on a moral issue can be financially and emotionally painful, and it may not help us get to the level of income or reputation we need to be really choosy.
Great question. But I have to make the conclusion I always do, which is that it is that “ethical” decision-making is a luxury not all of us have, whether we’re talking hybrids, veganism, or creative clients. 😉
@Lindsey. I most definitely agree that ethical decisions can have painful ramifications–and may even require sacrifices. But Lindsey, I respectfully disagree that they are a “luxury.” I may not, for example, be able to afford a new hybrid car, but our family can decide to live with one car, take public transportation more often and limit long car trips. Regarding client work: Bottom line, if the client’s ethics nag at me, I feel obligated to consider the situation more carefully. Maybe I can rationalize and arrive at a compromise–as with my pharma clients. But sometimes I can’t. In those instances, I have to take a hit in income–and make a more concerted effort to attract the clients I do want to work with.
Spot-on post, Lorraine. Excellent!
Do I perceive dissonance? I’m cynical to the bone marrow, so yes. Would I still promote the product? In most cases, no way. I’ve turned down work for the same reason. To me, marketing has to contain a modicum of truth for it to be truly effective. Telling us it’s all roses and sunshine when the sky is clearly falling is utter BS, and I won’t take part in it.
I have a client currently (who I’m about to drop for other reasons) who wants me to paint this rosy picture of their company. I can’t. There’s too much controversy surrounding their industry to ignore it. Instead, I draw in the negative points and give copy that addresses those points sensibly. The counter-argument I present is based on truth and is a truthful account from my perspective. It’s created a bit of debate between the client and me, but I’m not going to blow sunshine where it doesn’t belong.
@Lori: I applaud your honesty in acknowledging the dissonance. And I sympathize: discussing this painful issue with clients is tough. Very tough. Because, in my experience, marketing directors and company powers-that-be often prefer to ignore the elephant in the room. Brava to you for refusing to outright lie to your client–and his/her customers!