Drawing the line

Marketers and their agencies face ethical issues on an almost daily basis. Sooner or later questions about inflated pricing, environmental sustainability and rampant consumerism are bound to come up. And, sooner or later, individuals examine their comfort levels in marketing certain products too well.

Through conversations with marketers, writer Chris Daniels discovered first-hand just how integral ethics are in everyday business decisions, even when doing the right thing isn’t always considered to be the gold standard.

Jason Anderson
Head of marketing, Xbox
Microsoft Canada, Toronto
We market hundreds of Xbox games to Canadians. In video gaming (like many other forms of entertainment), not all content is appropriate for all ages. Although it is ultimately up to parents to decide what they show their children, we would be remiss if we didn’t take the opportunity to act in a responsible manner. At Microsoft, this includes making careful decisions about where and when we market M-rated (mature) games, and taking an active role in industry associations that are committed to educating parents. I am engaged in many debates about our industry-both professionally and personally. At one end of the spectrum, some argue the old NRA (National Rifle Association) adage “guns don’t kill people…people kill people.” At the other end is censorship. We walk this delicate balance every day, and I firmly believe it would be wrong to ignore the broader responsibility we have as leaders in this industry.

Stephanie Baxter
Senior corporate communications manager
Coca-Cola, Toronto
When I was younger my parents would say, “Never do anything you wouldn’t want seen on the front page of tomorrow’s Globe and Mail.” It was meant to stop me from doing anything truly over the edge. But it also laid the foundation for how I made decisions for the rest of my life: Would I be proud to see it in print? As a communicator, it is important for me to work with a company that has values like integrity and accountability. At Coca-Cola, we have a strictly enforced Code of Business Conduct, and since no company works in a vacuum, and to ensure our values go beyond just us, we have Supplier Guiding Principles which set the standards by which our suppliers must operate. There are a number of issues currently facing our company and our industry, and as a spokesperson for Coca-Cola I know I can respond with confidence knowing that we are working towards solutions and answers.

Jim Eagles
VP, sales and marketing
Moosehead Breweries, Saint John, N.B.
Beer is a very image-oriented product. The quality and taste of beer is important but so is its packaging and advertising as they make a statement about the person drinking it. But we would prefer to market on brand attributes other than price. Each province has placed a minimum price that beer cannot be sold below to ensure excessive/abusive consumption is minimized. Personally, I do feel the unintended consequences of too much beer consumption can result in tragic outcomes like (accidents caused while) driving impaired and alcoholism. Both myself personally and Moosehead would like to see this social reference price increased, or at a minimum annually adjusted to account for inflation, and we are lobbying provincial liquor boards and industry organizations to do just this. Clearly, we market on the basis of price to some degree… from an advertising standpoint, I’d rather focus on the brand’s relevance to the consumer as part of a vital, appropriate lifestyle versus marketing our beer as a commodity. I believe that is the right way to market beer.

Mike Farrell
Partner, director of research and strategy
Youthography, Toronto
Here at Youthography (where we focus exclusively on understanding and communicating with young Canadian tweens, teens and young adults) the notion of ethics in what we do is omnipresent. We’re ever-vigilant for notions that smack of misrepresentation or have at their heart some sort of tie into the negative side of the collective id. For example, focusing exclusively on guilt or envy as the sole basis of a marketing platform is not something we will do and it’s something that we’ll advocate strongly against in any research recommendations. I remember when “roach marketing” (word of mouth seeded by marketers), was an industry buzzword and we had client after client coming to ask us about this. We consistently offered other tactics and vociferously turned any interested client away from this on the grounds that this tactic ran the very strong risk of backfiring on you should young Canadians become aware of the lack of authenticity involved. And find out they invariably will. So it makes both good business and cultural sense to make sure what you’re doing in this marketplace is above board and authentic.

Sharon Macleod
Marketing manager, Dove
Unilever Canada, Toronto
Journalists have often said to me: Isn’t the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty positioning just about selling product? I almost take offence to that. We have business objectives. But by selling more product, we are able to invest in more communications that send a positive message to women and girls. For me, the better the business does, the more we contribute to society. We just completed a project where we invited girls to photograph their friends, capturing images of what they feel is beautiful. (The photographs will be featured in a promotional calendar which will be distributed free at retail when customers buy two Dove products.) The two-day event was held over a weekend, but the Dove staff volunteered to help out. It makes me feel like I work on my own non-profit projects within the corporate organization.

Kim McConnell
CEO
AdFarm, Calgary
Being a specialized agency, 100% agriculturally focused, AdFarm is frequently requested to work with competitive companies. Is it ethical to have competing clients under one roof? To serve competing clients requires trust and a commitment to ethical behaviour by both the agency and clients. AdFarm is fortunate to work in the agriculture industry, known for trustworthiness and ethics. Like other professional services firms, however, it was imperative that we develop policies and procedures that were foolproof. AdFarm invested in a very secure firewall that includes strict operating procedures and the retention of a respected accounting firm to perform a comprehensive “firewall audit” on a regular basis. Competitive accounts have their own team of account managers, creative, production, right down to separate printers with restricted access privileges. Each account is located in a separate office, or in its own isolated part of the agency. Living our AdFarm values and practising ethical behaviour is absolutely essential to our business.

Noel O’Dea
President, director of strategic and creative planning
Target Marketing & Communications, St. John’s, Nfld.
A principle is not a principle until it costs you money. And, man, principles have cost us a bunch of money over the years. Perhaps it’s easier for independent agencies to stick to their principles because, unlike the multinational branch offices, we don’t have to “make the numbers” for New York or London every month.

For me, the best test is to ask myself: What would my dad think? What would my mother say if I told her that what I do is create ads that persuade people to gamble, or that I spend my day thinking up ways to make cigarette smoking cool to teenagers? That’s how I decided not to create advertising for these kinds of clients, no matter how lucrative the contract. The lottery is the largest advertiser in Atlantic Canada, but we decline all opportunities to promote lottery products. (We have offered to create social responsibility campaigns to educate people, however.)

Our second test, when considering a new client, is to research the company and the industry. Just last year we were approached by a uranium mining company. Our first thought was “No way. Uranium is bad. Uranium means Chernobyl or Iran.” But we did a lot of digging and discovered that many prominent scientists and environmentalists support uranium as the safest and most environmentally responsible way to generate the volume of electricity the world needs. So we took the assignment. Dad would be proud.

Geoffrey B. Roche
Founder, chief creative officer
Lowe Roche, Toronto
When asked to speak to this sort of topic there is a tendency to brag about how wonderful and moral your company has been in the past. While I applaud this, I think that ethics should simply be a part of being in business, and that the kind of thinking that extends into all facets of your business is what can really make a difference. Things like who you hire when, giving back to society through volunteer work (not just to win awards) and keeping people in jobs to the point that it costs you. And lastly trying to create an environment that fosters great talent and ability through training and mentorship. While I would like to say that we have practised this in spades and have the perfect company, the fact is we have not succeeded completely, but it has not been for a lack of effort. And we’ll keep trying to keep those best practices, no matter what it costs.

Julie Rusciolelli
President
Maverick Public Relations, Toronto
Several online gambling and betting sites have approached us to help them position their brands. Their business goals are simple: entice people to their website and place a bet. With each prospect we listened attentively, gave some sage advice and showed them the door. Notwithstanding the fact that online gambling is illegal in Canada (websites have to be operated offshore), it was easy to figure out the cause of that gnawing feeling in the pit of our stomachs: It was morally wrong to help fuel positive traction for online gambling sites. Sure, those companies who approached us came with a U-Haul filled with money. But helping to promote online betting was something our firm did not want to represent. We couldn’t even imagine a gambling site brand next to our roster of clients, including Habitat for Humanity and Sick Kids Hospital. From addiction issues to psychological problems, we couldn’t see our firm espousing the benefits of something that can lead to major behavioural issues. (My entire staff) sent me e-mails and web links on the issues and moral implications of supporting such clients. We will not engage with any online gambling site. Our own brand is too precious to gamble away.

Cathy Whelan Molloy
VP, brand marketing and merchandising
The TDL Group, Oakville, Ont.
In one of my first agency jobs, I was presented with the challenge of coming up with ideas for a client. I spent a lot of time on competitive investigation one weekend, and came in the office with an idea that I thought the client might like. I shared the idea with my account director. The account director really liked the idea. I had to attend another meeting that morning; by 9:30 a.m. the account director had swiped the idea, put it in a letter, signed it and sent it to the client. Though the idea was never “mine” (most ideas are always out there waiting), I was taken aback that someone would do that. I learned quickly that not everyone will play by the golden rule: Treat others how you want to be treated. I learned that the golden rule is how I strive to be: a good individual and leader within a team. In the end that is what attracted me to the Tim Hortons organization. Tim Hortons has a philosophy of “doing the right thing,” and a boss who practises what he preaches, which makes my job easier.

Rob Whittle
National president
DDB Canada, Vancouver
I hate smoking. As laws have toughened over the years regarding where one can smoke and how the insidious product can be marketed, the tobacco industry has become ingenious, in a twisted fashion, as to how it markets cigarettes. This makes my blood boil.

Once a tobacco company contacted us to launch a massive sports marketing program aimed at youth. The account was ours with no pitch, but there was no way I would ever agree to working with them. However, I did meet with their marketing team so I could tell them how disgusting their plan was, and how I would move mountains to make sure it would never see the light of day. We may not have been awarded a new account, but I felt rewarded turning down their business. I am proud to say now that DDB has a worldwide policy to never accept money from any tobacco company for any marketing or advertising campaign.

CHRIS DANIELS is a freelance writer in Toronto.