It aint easy being black

If Kermit the frog, thought it was hard being green, he should have spent some time being black. It seems like every time I turn around I'm hearing more and more about how blacks have higher rates of sickness, higher incarceration rates, lower educational achievement, lower salaries, on and on and on. As a black man myself, for me it always felt like there was a huge bifurcation in the community, on one hand you have the blacks who are driving those statistics and on the other hand you have blacks like me who are well educated, have fancy jobs, probably aren't going to go to jail (I hope!) and exist as the perpetual counterpoint to those aforementioned underachievers.

The other day I saw an ad that really spoke directly to this sense of a split community
















That's an ad by 100 Black men's Baton Rouge chapter (if you don't know about 100 black men you should definitely check out the website. They are a national nonprofit that provides services to black men to help them stay on the right track). Technically speaking I don't hate this ad. I'm not in love with it but it's simple, big, has an interesting image, clear next steps, all in all not a bad execution of a billboard ad. The thing that really struck me about the ad was that it set up a false choice that I think often makes things so difficult for so many black men.

I was fortunate enough to be raised in a home where "pinstripes" was a perfectly achievable goal, and therefore, I did the things I had to do to make sure that I'm able to afford my fancy suits, but for many of my peers, pinstripes is an unattainable goal. Many black men couldn't imagine themselves in corporate settings (and the homogeneity of the corporate world and the potentially discriminatory hiring practices isn't exactly helping) so the only other option that they see is the 'prison stripes'.

I always say, as marketers for causes, we have to do better, and I believe this was a case of a marketer sacrificing the message for a pithy line. Am I being nit picky? Yes. Do I think that this is important? Yes. If you set up an argument in the viewers mind that has a foregone conclusion ("I'm never going to get to pinstripes, so it's prison stripes for me") the viewer won't follow up on your call to action. Rather than being a provocative question that deserves investigation by going to your website, you end up with a statement that may end up actually playing against your mission. There are plenty of alternatives to prison stripes and you've got to make your destination a place for people to go to learn what those alternatives are.

We've got to do better.

Data Fetish

da·ta  –noun
1. a pl. of datum.
2. ( used with a plural verb ) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate processing by the computer.
3. ( used with a singular verb ) a body of facts; information: Additional data is available from the president of the firm.

fet·ish  –noun
1. an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.
2. any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion: to make a fetish of high grades.

The other day I was sitting in a conference about something or other (most likely about consulting or marketing) and after about an hour of patiently waiting for knowledge to come pouring down from my orators mouth into my open mind, I looked down at my paper and realized that the only thing I had written was 'Data Fetish'. Reviewing the presentation in my mind I could only recall a dizzying flurry of numbers and statistics and thinking 'So what's the point?' To quote Marshal McLuhan the medium has for many organizations become the message and in this case the medium is numbers. I think in the nonprofit space there is an interesting bifurcation into two camps, one camp of people running the mom and pop nonprofits with no data tracking systems at all and no idea of what to do with the data once it was tracked and then another camp of people (probably mostly at foundations) with a full fledged Data Fetish, who simply can't make a decision without looking at a complex excel model.

Frankly I don't think either end of the spectrum is particularly right. Those data agnostic are often operating with either a total ignorance of the power of data (and as such wasting precious resources) or operating with a fear of what the numbers will tell them (and as such wasting precious resources). The data fetishist are convinced that their numbers are the god's own truth (totally forgetting that the numbers could be wrong or were derived from completely bat shit wild guesses and baseless assumptions) or are so fixated with getting the data that important decisions are tabled until this magic-cure-all data can be found (and as such, wasting precious resources).

I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Don't get me wrong, I'm as evidence driven as the next fancy pants management consultant but I never forget that data is just a tool that informs one's judgement - it is NOT the judgement - and I also remember that judgement without a base of information is just some crazy bat shit guess.

So what's the answer? Well it lies somewhere between my two favorite quotes:

"It is not enough to do your best. First you must know what to do, and then do your best"

&

"A good plan in time is better than a great plan too late"

-C

On foxes, scorpions, and black babies

Once there was a fox about to cross a river. On the banks of the river sat a scorpion. Doing it’s best to avoid scorpion, the fox prepared to make his crossing, when, surprisingly the scorpion called out to the fox. “Mr Fox,” the scorpion said, “would you please carry me across the water? I desperately need to get to the other side and I can not swim.” The fox crinkled its orange brow and shrewdly said, “But I am a fox, and you are a scorpion!Were I to allow you on my back, you’d simply sting me”. “Not true,” the scorpion replied, “for I will only climb upon you once you get into the water, and were I to sting you once we're in the water we would both drown. Frankly, I have no desire to drown.” The scorpions logic seemed sound and the fox agreed to give him a ride. The fox entered the water, the scorpion climbed upon the foxes back, and the fox began to swim. When the fox made it about half way across the water, the scorpion strung the fox and injected him with poison. The fox, dumbfounded, looked back to the scorpion and asked “Why? Why would you sting me and doom us both?”. As the fox began to drown (along with the scorpion) the scorpion replied “because I am a scorpion”.

I saw an ad the other day that made me think of that ancient fable.

This is one of the 65 ads that went up in Georgia last February (Black History month). It’s an ad by the Radiance Foundation (an organization that is being funded by ‘Georgia right to life’) and the campaign is based around the idea that that abortion clinics like planned parenthood have an agenda to exterminate black babies. Normally ads just piss me off because they suck so much, this ad (and campaign) is different, this ad offends me, deeply. I make no effort to be bipartisan nor do I pretend to be objective in my views on this blog. I think women should have the right to have abortions, I think people are equal even though situations are unequal, I think watching someone fall and injure themselves on youtube is funny and, while this campaign assails two of those beliefs, that is not the main reason this campaign offends me.

This campaign uses the veneer of nonprofit marketing, marketing that is essentially there to “do good”, to pass on a poisonous lie. One that strives to make African American women more fearful of getting the help that they need, one that tries to position well respected organization like Planned Parenthood as a white conspiracy to exterminate black babies, and one that racistly depicts black women as dupes and black babies as animals (endangered species?!?!). I believe that people have the freedom to say what they want, and while I disagree with some messages and with standpoints, I want them to say it well. I feel that advertising and marketing have the obligation to tell the truth, ads that blatantly sell lies and encourage dangerous behaviors do not have the right to life and should be aborted while still in their creators minds. Mass marketing, like journalism, is too powerful a tool to be infused with lies and it is up to responsible professionals to fight back. To steal the motto from McCann Erickson, advertising should be “truth well told”, not fearmongering well funded.

I’ll end with an ad I like.

The format is clean, the headline is an easy and quick read, the call-to-action stands out, and most importantly, it's 'Truth well told'.

Finally an ad I don't hate

As I've begun to write this blog and actively critique the things around me (not that I don't always critique the things around me, I'm just normally keep them down to 3 word summaries like "That fucking sucks" or "God that's terrible") I've noticed that, for the most part, I think most ads suck. It is for that reason that I'm tickled pink (or as pink as a black man gets) when I see an ad for a good cause that doesn't suck. Case in point:








































This ad doesn't suck. . . . thank god, something that doesn't suck.

Why doesn't it suck? Simple, because it's simple. Without going the gross out route and showing some poor bikers head splattered across the car (I'm talking to you "anti smoking" and "anti sugary drinks" ads) they get across the point that cars smash up bikers. Furthermore they give the viewer a simple, achievable action to do, to prevent smashing up a biker "look". Of course there are things to improve upon. The name of the org is blending into the background and it's hard to see the website, but come on, who goes to the website anyway? Do I really want to learn more about how not to smash a biker while I'm driving? No not really. It's a minor technical point and certainly not enough to make the ad suck.

Good job whoever made this ad, you reminded me of the one key truth of advertising: Ads don't have to suck, it's just that most of the time ads are made by people that suck.