We’re an odd bunch, us advertisers. Most of us really enjoy our jobs and do a lot of good things, for our clients, for the economy, sometimes even for society at large. But, we’re often depicted as evil forces in society. Or leaches. Or whores. Or worse. Frankly, as a writer, I’d rather be writing novels… or screenplays… or at least beer commercials. But, I happen to like things like living indoors and eating on a regular schedule. Besides, I truly love what I do.
Being Halloween, lets look at the Evil and Good side of advertising. Now, in addition to many other things in my life, I spent many years as a youth counselor at my church. It became part of a running joke between the kids and I, that I was part of the evil empire. Because, any time we went to some big church youth event, like the Ichthus Music Festival – sort of a three day Woodstock with Christian rock acts – invariably some speaker would get up to talk to the kids about the evil advertisers who brainwashed them in everything from unattainable body image to buying unneeded expensive jeans to smoking. All their heads would turn to me and they’d laugh and point. The joke was on.
Now, it’s true there are evil people doing evil things in advertising. There are also evil plumbers who charge you to fix things that aren’t broke. But, in both cases, I think that’s a very small minority. We all have our own code of ethics. I personally, will never do ads for tobacco or Republicans (well, maybe some Republicans). But, I have done lottery ads and had people at my church look down on me for it. To each their own.
However, we advertisers do a lot of good, too. At Yaffe, we’ve always done pro-bono work for charities. Most agencies do. Fred Yaffe, our CEO, was chairman of the Leader Dog for the Blind organization and is still on their board. Michael Morin, another partner, is chairman of Lighthouse of Oakland County, an organization that shelters hundreds of women and children and helps many more get back on their feet every year.
One of our more recent acts of good was to help design and produce a calendar to help raise funds for cystic fibrosis research. It was a labor of love, beautifully done and roundly praised by those involved with the calendar production. If you want to know more about this project, go to www.yaffetidbits.com and see the article in the news section. If you’d like to help out an purchase a copy of the calendar for yourself, click here. And if you’re a charity looking for some marketing help, drop me a line. If I’m not busy plotting to rule the world, I’ll see what we can do.
Mike McClure
Do-gooder/member of the evil empire
The evil empire? Who said that, where are they, let me at ’em. We’re just a bunch of hard working folks looking to make a nickel. Ok, I know that I’ve been known to say, “It’s advertising…what does truth have to do with it?” But, I was just kidding…geez…give a guy break.
Seriously, everybody needs to go buy one of these calenders. Christmas is coming and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation needs the money more than Border’s or Barnes and Noble.