Presenting your marketing in the best possible light
 The Advertising Standards Authority has partially upheld complaints made against the Government's "Act on CO2" campaign. The campaign has featured several themes encouraging the UK population to make changes to their behaviour to counter the effect of climate change.
Where the Government fell foul was making claims that the UK environment would change in a specific way, claims which were not supported by the evidence. It is a small and relatively minor error, yet one that detracts from the entire argument. The headlines that I've seen have focussed on the advert being "banned" by the ASA (including this one from the BBC)
This chips away at the credibility of the climate change message. A steady stream of headlines over recent weeks have systematically undermined the message and raised the thought in many people's minds that maybe this climate stuff isn't all it is cracked up to be.
When I was working in Compliance and part of my job was reviewing advertising and marketing materials this was the kind of issue I kept coming up against. A report or a statistic would be taken, twisted and shown to mean something it was never meant to. Rarely was this done in a way deliberately intended to mislead, usually it was an overzealous marketer trying to present the business in the best possible light. Yet it had the effect of chipping.
The counter to the "overzealous" protectionism of the Compliance function was to argue that if the complaint hit the ASA it would be dealt with and at worst we'd get a rap on the knuckles. Perhaps, but for every person who complains to the right authorities, how many people embark on a whisper campaign through blogs and newsgroups and just chatting to their mates?
If you're putting adverts together and you're going to reference reports make sure you get the interpretation right. Don't misuse the numbers, don't twist the context. Your attempts to present your company in the best possible light could easily come back to haunt you.
Previously on this blog...
the global leader in Contact Center Consolidation 2.0
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Setting up shop in a new country: beyond the website
Building a website for multiple languages is not just about translation. It is a critical business decision that has to be taken carefully.
Why call centre staff deserve your respect
If call centre staff set the first impression for your business, why do we treat them so badly?
Becoming a Specialist? A hard decision to make ...
Specialising requires hard strategic decisions to be made about your business.
When good people move on
Losing a member of staff to another company is not necessarily a bad thing
The quest for quality in Agile Software Development
Why quality assurance remains a central part of project management, regardless of the use of Agile methods
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