OK, so I’m being facetious … but I’m getting a bit sick of all these brands jumping on the ‘social cause’ bandwagon.
Don’t get me wrong, anything that helps those less fortunate is a good thing … but when the intent feels purely for marketing purposes, it makes me feel a little bit queasy.
At least the companies who donate masses of cash to charities so they can write it off against tax don’t run ads saying how compassionate they are … however I’m seeing more and more brands doing campaigns that basically state the same thing:
“XXXXXX* FOR GOOD”.
[* Where ‘X’ is a word linked to their specific category]
However it doesn’t take Stephen Hawking to realise the underlying message is actually:
“BUYING OUR PRODUCT MEANDS WE CAN BOTH PRETEND WE’RE NICE PEOPLE WHEN WE BOTH REALLY KNOW WE JUST WANT TO GUILT TRIP YOU INTO ADDING TO OUR PROFITS AND YOU JUST WANT A FANCY NEW PHONE/OUTFIT/PERFUME ETC ETC”.
Of course Bono’s Project Red was/is probably the poster boy for this sort of approach – and as much as I think there’s some major flaws with the approach – at least Mr Irish realised the opportunity to develop an umbrella scheme to basically attract money from the champagne socialists / label whores out there.
However I’ve come across possibly one of the worst examples of this approach and it’s from my favourite brand extension developers, Mont Blanc.
SINGATURE FOR GOOD!
SIGNATURE FOR BLOODY GOOD!
Are they fucking kidding???
But hang on, there’s more …
Mont Blanc believe the ability to read and write is a fundamental human right and they’re deeply committed to the culture writing.
On one hand that’s pretty obvious given the fuckers make pens … however if they really gave a shit, why the hell would they make their stuff so bloody expensive rather than bring out a ‘BIC’ which could be given to school kids around the World?
Oh I know why, because they don’t really give a fuck … because let’s face it, as much as a million bucks may sound a lot, when one of their pens costs SEVEN HUNDRED AND THRITY THOUSAND DOLLARS, it’s not really that much to give at all.
As I said, I accept that any help is good help, but as I wrote here a while back, it doesn’t take much scratching to realise many of the words and platitudes being spouted by these socially conscience brands are closer to the work of a conman, than a carer.