So social media is all the rage. Consumers are all over it. Marketers are all over it. And it’s changing the way people and marketers communicate with each other and amongst themselves. Baltimore-based Carton Donofrio Partners wants to leverage this and has launched StopTheAdness, an “online laboratory where industry and consumers can collaborate on a new social contract for advertising.”
On the site advertisers and publishers can sign a pledge that promises to help make advertising better by adhering to some practices and abandoning others. Consumers can post examples of “adness” (bad ads) and they can opt to play a key role in contributing to the future of media.
In a video on the StopTheAdness site, Carton Donofrio Partners ECD David Smith highlights the fact advertising is the least trusted profession second only to politicians
Touting a well known fact about advertising, Smith says, “Instead of listening to you, adness shouts at you.” And with this effort, he hopes to stop the shouting and come up with a better solution. What that solution is we do not know. But wait. Is this just Victor and Spoils’ Crowd sourcing in different clothing?
Hey, we love any and all efforts to “fix” advertising, But seriously, when there’s shit to sell, people are going to do what they have to do to sell it. Honesty doesn’t always play well when money and profit are involved. And that’s a fact. People will do what they need to do to make more money. And if that means bending the truth then the truth will forever be bent.
A pessimistic viewpoint? Of course. But a realistic one as well. Social media is not going to alter the genesis of capitalism. We can converse all we want. Friend everyone in the world. Discuss ad naseum the less than nobel tactics of marketing. But the fact remains. Companies are in business to make money. They will do whatever they have to to continue doing so. Oh sure, they’ll pay lip service to good causes and play nice in social media spaces but at the end of the day (I hate that phrase), it’s all about the Benjamins (I hate that phrase too).
