Advertising their responsibility

How did advertising once a blatant epithet for profit manage to represent itself as an industry with a conscience? Through ads that support social responsibility, discovers Carolina D'Souza.

Last summer, the Queen asked me what I did for a living. When I said 'advertising', you should have seen the expression on her beautiful face a mixture of horror, incredulity and amusement.
- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather

If the father of advertising were to answer this question today, the Queen might perhaps have reacted more favourably.

Because advertising that blatant epithet for a sale or a placard for a company's vainglory is now synonymous with social responsibility. The buccaneering medium uses the very slickness and influence it is known for to honour more than just a balance sheet equation.

The advertising industry uses its core talent creativity to answer the rousing call of issues concerning social awareness and the environment.

Take the Khede Kasra ad campaign for example. It used nothing more than a strategically placed kasra, the Arabic word for a distinguishing mark, on a letter to address the gender imbalance in Lebanese society. And what the seemingly benign accent does is it alters the predominantly masculine Arabic language to feminine.

"Arabic words by default are written and read as masculine. Khede means 'take' and Kasra also means 'habit'. It was a play on words. We did this for the Women Empowerment Program for the Hariri Foundation," says Bechara Mouzannar, regional executive creative director, Leo Burnett Beirut, Lebanon, who worked on Khede Kasra.

The print and online campaign ran for two-and-a-half-months (see sidebar), and achieved more than it expected. It sparked debate on female regulation in the Lebanese judicial system, and won five gold and two silver awards at the International Dubai Lynx Festival in March and a gold Lion at The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June. The campaign is an example of the advertising industry's coming of age. Responsible advertising, like Khede Kasra, plays a significant role in addressing crucial world issues.

The advertising industry employs cogent images and words to sensitise, edify, even proselytise us in the face of harsh realities. It has ads to raise awareness and disseminate information in areas of pollution, global warming, child abuse and hunger among others. Some ads are simple overt in image and message some are implicit and didactic with clever illustrations. Still others stand out for their design, but not their intent.

Each outlines a theme that rides on social responsibility and fuels the existing trend of ads for good causes. One organisation took the trend so seriously that it picked up the gauntlet to identify and cull examples of the best responsible advertising from around the world.

The founders Hervé de Clerck and Isabel Kurata believe communication has a huge awakening power and it is up to us to use this tool responsibly. Since 2001, the non-profit organisation has collected more than 4,000 advertising campaigns from 300 agencies in 70 countries. Aptly called ACT (Advertising Community Together) Responsible, it promotes and inspires responsible communication on sustainability, equitable development and social responsibility. It does this through exhibitions, conferences, media partnership and a free database of advertising campaigns worldwide. At the 56th Cannes Lions, ACT Responsible was present for the eighth consecutive year. The festival was a podium for industry mavens from more than 90 countries who gathered to listen to speakers like Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations and president of the Global Humanitarian Forum, and Bob Geldof, founder of Live Aid. (Over 22,000 examples of the most creative advertising were judged at the event.)

ACT Responsible featured The Expo, a new edition of its travelling exhibition titled Climate Change, Human Impact, Creative Challenge that focused on the best social and environmentally themed advertisements created for NGOs, public institutions and companies committed to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The exhibition had 400 advertising campaigns from more than 100 worldwide agencies.

Such high profile events indicate how perceptions and practices have changed in the advertising industry. Once known to bully people into a sale and accused of avarice, the industry is now recognised as an entity with a conscience.

At The Cannes Lions, Clerck spoke of the trend of social responsibility in advertising as a major driving force in global business. He said advertising raises awareness on social concerns of individuals, consumers and voters who are the real decision-makers of a movement.

Kurata, co-founder of ACT responsible and marketing director of AdForum, a worldwide leading portal dedicated to the advertising industry, couldn't be more in agreement. She talks of advertising in the context of ads that create a desire to buy a commercial product, as well as share an ideology or a fight.

While most people speak of the evil-doing of advertisers, the attitude changes when the ad is for a good cause. Kurata says people are increasingly sceptical of commercial advertisements, but find common ground when the content has a global or humanitarian message. When ads are about the "future of the planet and of humanity, people want to act and be/have a part in a better world of tomorrow. This kind of advertising is in tandem with their dreams and that is what makes it so powerful".

During The Cannes Lions, ACT worked on two important campaigns to raise awareness on climate change. One was with Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum and Havas Worldwide, the umbrella brand that incorporates Euro RSCG Worldwide, and the other was for the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit 2009 (December 6-18) in association with the International Advertising Association (IAA).

The second one, says Kurata, is in response to the UN call to advertising agencies to help create awareness for the Summit. "Both campaigns have the same aim. They will show politicians [at the Summit] that world citizens and corporations are ready to change behaviours in terms of the ecological/human crises we will face if treaties aren't signed by all attending countries."

The nature of the undertaking isn't new for ACT Responsible. Since its inception eight years ago, it has facilitated activities at venues including the UN Headquarters in New York and The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Kurata has been at the helm of several initiatives including the launch of Adwiser, a think tank of experts focusing on sustainable practices in the ad industry; and One Minute of Responsibility, a TV programme of advertising for Good Causes broadcasted on Euronews.

The challenge for ACT Responsible is to get agencies to understand that it is a collective effort, she says. "Agencies should financially support this effort to prove how advertising professionals from all continents can play a positive part." This year is crucial for the organisation that played a pivotal role to invite Annan to speak on the human face of climate change and how the creative community can participate to change 'Climate Change' to 'Climate Justice'. The upcoming summit makes their mission even stronger. At The Cannes Lions, Clerck said it is essential to show how involved the advertising industry is to take on the challenge, especially in such a context.

As with all social endeavours, ACT Responsible was conceptualised after the 9/11 attacks. Clerck, the founder of AdForum and his wife Christine, were on location when the towers collapsed. When they resumed work they thought AdForum had to do something about it as a representative of the industry.

And ACT Responsible was born. "They decided to place a button called Advertising Community Together (ACT) on the website, calling agencies to create ads against violence and terrorism. In a few months, AdForum received 100 ads from 30 countries," says Kurata.

The company then decided to show the amazing work in an exhibition titled Still Shining New York at The Cannes Lions in 2002.

It didn't take long for the company to realise that millions of creative executives from agencies were contributing time and talent toward good causes. The same year, it put together another exhibition with IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) to fight discrimination and promote tolerance. And in 2003, it held an exhibition to showcase a compendium of ads and called it Great Ads for Good Causes to illustrate how advertising can promote good causes.

"Every year we create new exhibitions to launch at The Cannes Lions and the ongoing travelling world tour exhibition," says Kurata.

The Paris-based company has a relatively small operating team. They liaise with all continents to promote the best of advertising, and are supported by several organisations like IAA, European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), The French and American Associations of agencies, NGOs and local ambassadors.

"But our work is supported 100 per cent by sponsors and donors which make it quite hard in times of financial crisis," she says.

"Still we believe the industry needs this kind of initiative to support its talent and stay united and strong to defend and fight various issues."

ACT Responsible selects ads first for their creativity and second for its capacity to change behaviour. "We try to represent as many countries as possible and as many themes covering the environment and social issues, but also economic issues such as Corporate Social Responsibility," says Kurata. The emphasis is on changing behaviour. She hopes ads in general can stir and awaken the viewer to make him more aware of the complexity of issues that we deal with. It is sad that measurable data on the effectiveness of ad campaigns is scant and not easily available. A fact she attributes to the lack of funds.

"Awards on effectiveness like the Euro Effies [Gold Standard in Commercial Communications Effectiveness] produced by the EACA in Brussels have specific categories for social causes. It's quite complex and difficult to measure this kind of effectiveness as these ads use the emotional leverage and defend the work of NGOs that often don't have the money to measure their communication. Adding this kind of information would be very valuable for NGOs. We [ACT Responsible] however don't have the financial capacity to do so."

Still, what the company has managed to do is make advertisements and campaigns accessible on its website (www.act-responsible.org). It has a unique online gallery which has over a million downloads of responsible adverts each year. And it is searchable with key words and sub themes.

"ACT Responsible also shares its content with many partner websites like the IAA, EACA, the United Nations Environment Programme, the French Association of Advertisers and many more to encourage the best practices," says Kurata.

And as it did this year, ACT's collections will continue to go on world tours. Thus far exhibitions have been shown in Paris, Cannes, London, Brussels, Barcelona, Warsaw, New York, Seattle, Santiago, Milan, Seoul and Beijing.

"We wish to expand every year!" says Kurata.

Despite efforts by organisations like ACT Responsible, the dichotomy between ads for commercial gain and ads for social gain will remain. And the advertising industry may continue to attract a stigma due to its business model, but it does exonerate itself from time to time with ads for good causes.