A sobering view of cause-based marketing.
Here’s a thought-starting op-ed from political scientist Robert Koulish about the broader institutional implications of caused-based marketing in cases where it oozes towards the political.
Key quote:
Advertising in the 21st century is less about proposing a transaction and more about constructing identities around corporate brands. But constructing personal and social identity fits more closely with political than commercial speech.
The First Amendment protects the sort of political dialogue Mr. Gore and Bono are promoting and prevents the government from regulating such dialogue without some extremely good reason. But the government is allowed to protect consumers from misleading product information by regulating commercial speech.
[tags] cause-marketing, Gore, Bono, First Amendment [/tags]
1 comment
Read the article and glad you pointed me to it. A very interesting read and something I hadn’t thought about. The following has been classified by Snopes as a false urban legend (a British comedian created the joke based on a commercial bono appeared in), but it makes an amusing read nevertheless:
At a U2 concert in Glasgow, Bono asks the audience for some quiet.
Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands.
Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone
“Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.”
A voice from near the front pierces the silence;
“Well, stop clapping your fookin’ hands then!”
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