Marketers. Get real.
28.05.2009


Society is in trouble. Much is going wrong. And a great deal of it is down to a lack of principle and decency. This is because most of our role models have self-destructed. Politicians have let us down by lying and cheating. Religions have let us down by promising peace and delivering prejudice. Sportsmen and women have let us down by taking performance-enhancing drugs and playing dirty.

As a marketer, you have to admit that our profession has been a major architect of distortion, exaggeration and ‘spin’.

There is only one way for all of us to recover our credibility and our value in society. We have to learn to adhere to a simple binary rule. We must learn to tell the truth – and nothing but the truth.

Even when it’s painful, truth is deliciously simple. There’s no need to remember the way a story was ‘wrapped’ or the claims that were exaggerated. You don’t need to worry that your products’ shortcomings will be discovered by an army of bloggers – usually paid by your competitors for this exact purpose.

Bankers won’t sell teetering piles of debt dressed up as rock-solid investments. Pensions won’t promise riches which melt away to nothing on the day you retire. Lifestyle marketing will reconnect with real life. Briton’s got talent will have real talent.

The world is searching for a new truth. And as society’s storytellers, we need to provide it. To paraphrase Barack Obama – this is time for change.