Writing on his blog, ANA Marketing Musings, ANA CEO and President Bob Liodice takes issue with recent political attempts to blame advertisers for society’s ills, namely, childhood obesity. Liodice thinks government regulation of advertising would be bad. Not that it really supports the point, but Liodice lists a litany of great things the ad industry has done for society, in general, from Ad Council work to Partnership for a Drug Free America to the self-regulatory work of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit.
While forcing crap down people’s throats via advertising might not be a good thing, perhaps advertising isn’t completely to blame. If there was no crap to force in the first place, there’d be no crap pushed to the public via advertising. In a capitalistic society, companies will do whatever is best for their financial bottom line – even if it makes American’s bottom line obese.
There may be no solution to this problem but Liodice’s commentary brings to light to notion of “don’t shoot the messenger.” While advertising may be a much easier and more visible target to complain about, if 750 calorie mega-burgers weren’t manufactured in the first place, there’s be no ad selling that crap. Perhaps the gun barrel needs to be aimed elsewhere.
