Advertising and PR have to constantly
tread a thin line between informing the public and offending the public. Ad and
PR and professionals are at some time in their career there will be a client
that will either want to promote a product that will offend someone and then
the PR professional will have to help fix that potential crisis.
There
are several different touchy topics that you have to be extra cautious of like;
sex, body image, race, and ethnicity. The brainstorming and planning process
take extra thought to make sure you execute the product effectively without
offending the audience.
The
first company that comes to mind that is borderline offensive is Carl’s Junior.
Carl’s Junior lives by the “sex sells” motto. Sure their commercial full of
half naked women get the point across, but is it really necessary? There are
plenty of other strategies that would have sufficed.
Strategic
communicators should have their client as their number one priority and with
that, their obligation in terms of goodwill should be high. If you want your
client to have a positive reputation, you must execute their products without
being offensive to the audience. Communicators should put themselves in the
shoes of the audience, if it is not something you would want to see, then don’t
do it.
I
would say besides a few organizations or corporations (i.e. Carls Junior, Urban
Outfitters, etc.) are fulfilling these
obligations.
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