Beware marketing pollution

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Beyond simply not being a wise choice for your brand, I would argue that a lack of focus in your marketing messages (or content) is actually irresponsible.

As marketers we have a responsibility, not only to our brands but to the public, and we’ve been shirking this responsibility for decades.

This isn’t a rant about being deceitful or dishonest, although that certainly happens. This is a rant about simply putting stuff out there — any old stuff — in hopes that it will garner some attention. It doesn’t.

This is quite simply marketing pollution. And it needs to stop.

Now, I certainly understand that this isn’t as big and important an issue as global warming or world hunger…we should keep working on those as best we can. But, as marketers, we have a professional responsibility to stop polluting the airwaves, the Internet, the email boxes of the public, with messages we know aren’t any different from what’s already there.

And I don’t buy the argument that everything has been said or done before and that nothing is new. Tell that to Norman Rockwell. Tell that to Steven Spielberg. Tell it to Dr. Seuss.

If you’re legitimately trying to create new messages, perhaps even something that’s already been done but in a different way, I thank you. But if you’re a marketer who just shrugs his/her shoulders, winces and pushes the publish button when you know what you’ve just created is in no way unique, you’re part of the problem.

Suck it up, marketers. Because if we don’t fix this problem, someone else will.

We can already see the writing on the wall…machine learning, so-called formulas designed to create the best headline. People are waiting in line to create tools designed to replace us. And, if we keep pumping out the same old drivel, we’ll be helping them.

Of course, there is a silver lining here or at least a way out. But we have to be united.

We have to agree to hold each other accountable, because we’ve all done it. We’re all guilty of creating something we know is already out there just to meet a deadline or give a squeaky wheel what it wants. We simply can’t do that anymore.

If we do start holding each other accountable, constructively helping each other avoid what Doug Kessler called Crap, we can once again regain our rightful place doing more than just helping people, but inspiring them. Because that’s our calling.

We are marketers and we should be proud of that. But lately, that label is more a cone of shame. We look down when we say we work in marketing. No one can change that but us.

What can you do? Two things: call BS (constructively) when you see marketers or brands throwing the same old stuff out there; and take a look at your own work. Are you part of the problem? Are you working hard with every message to make it somehow unique and inspiring?

We can do this, marketers. We can.

Actually, we must.