Last night as I left the office I walked past 3 girls of maybe 7 years old. They were talking about one of their mothers' friends who they had never met but was at this girl's home where they were all headed. Quite naturally they were pondering what she might be like; "perhaps she will be pretty with nice clothes" said one, "or ugly and single" giggled another.
I found it pretty depressing that these carefree young spirits had already established a link, consciously or not, between beauty, material wealth and your chance of landing a partner.
More disconcerting was that I then realised we marketers were entirely to blame. Whether directly or indirectly our message to women that you can buy happiness and success had managed to put a filter on the world view of these children.
As someone whose messages are directed at businesses, did I need to worry? Where do we draw the line between effective copy and pushing people's buttons? Where does using people's motivators become taking unfair advantage of insecurities that are perhaps caused by market factors beyond their control? (How many of us tacitly implied that our products or services would help our customer survive the recession?)
There are no clear rules, probably no real answers that make both commercial and ethical sense in equal part, but an interesting thought to puzzle next time you need a break from writing a communication strategy.
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