I despise advertising in so may ways (my philosophy on opposites applied) which is to say I love advertising in so many ways. And having watched this video of Rory Sutherland speaking at TED, it confirms that. You can't hate ads for being manipulative. Manipulation is not bad. I am a designer and design itself is manipulation. The part to dislike is the way advertising often fails to entertain, educate, beautify. Instead it often intrudes in the most irrelevant of contexts and unwelcome situations.
A couple of weeks ago an idea popped up in my head. Someone told a story about a couple of kids, siblings, who left school on a Friday after having written all over their bodies with markers and returned to school Monday still covered with the same marks.
The idea:
What if commercials, or other formats of advertising, always came with dual messages? One message would aim to satisfy the marketing need to sell a product. The other would aim to satisfy an altruistic goal.
Effectively this lessens the intrusiveness of an ad. It advertises a product, sure, but clearly serves to benefit the community at the same time. With regard to the kids scenario above, a television commercial for Sharpie would promote not only the strength of the ink within every fun, vibrant, colorful, permanent marker but remind parents as well about the downsides of child neglect.
To the audience, a message on the issues of child neglect doesn't come across as intrusive. In fact it should be spread. Viral plus karma?
The result:
Ads not only become more effective but become a public service as well.
