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'.