Is honesty over rated? Really we are advertising here.
A few days ago I read a blog post from AdAge and Bob Garfield on the topic of KFC and their recent ad campaign and yet again KFC got me thinking.
The blog post dives into some of the ‘issues’ with KFC and I encourage you to read it, but I want to take this in a different direction. I want to discuss a principle that seems to be leaving the world as a whole and more noticeably leaving the world of advertising. It all started decades ago and has been growing year over year. What is that principle? Honesty. Or should I say the lack there of.
Lets take cigarette ads in the the 1960‘s. Cigarettes were made to be glamorous and would magically turn anyone into a hollywood icon. Was it a lie? Did those marketing and advertising cigarettes lie to the world? Now lets move up a few years and talk about super diets. In the 1980’s the Atkins’ diet promised that anyone could lose massive amounts of weight by just eating. By 2003 the Atkins’ diet was no where to be found, so was it a lie?
Now here we are in 2010 and as business owners we are trying to share our products and services with the masses and in doing so, are we being honest? Are we upfront with our target audience? If not why are we scared to be? Why are we so hell bent on glorifying our products/services? One word; fear.
Yes fear is what drives us all in business. Fear of failure, fear that we won’t be liked. Fear that we will lose everything and so on. Sadly we are losing everything by not facing these and other fears head on.
As a marketing and advertising consultant I battle daily with clients to ‘tell it like it is’. I push them to open up to their target base and to push the real un-edited version of what they have to offer. Why? Because they will stand out. How sad is that? By being honest they will stand out to the public and will be able to use honesty as a marketing and advertising angle.
So have I come full circle? Am I consulting businesses to be honest with the intent to sell and is that deemed ‘frauding the masses’? I will leave that for you to answer, but I will say this; there is nothing more enlightening then to have an honest and open dialog with an other member of the human race.
There is something about honesty that in the long run, just makes life—easier. I consult each of you to take a step back and look at your ad campaigns. Open up to the public and get real with them. Cut the fluff, cut the junk and just tell it how it is. Show your face—just make it an honest one—with that I promise positive results.
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