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It’s hard to fake authenticity. That doesn’t stop the advertising industry from trying.
At the Cannes Lions advertising conference this week—ahem, it prefers to be called an International Festival of Creativity—there was a lot of talk by marketing gurus, agency bigwigs, and assorted corporate execs about values, purpose, and authenticity. Listening to them, at times you might forget that the real purpose of their ad campaigns is to sell more shoes, razors, or video games.
Nike’s Colin Kaepernick-fronted “Dream Crazy” ad was the source of much buzz in Cannes. Gillette’s campaign confronting toxic masculinity and Microsoft’s promoting accessibility for the disabled also took their brands into purpose-driven territory.
Is that a problem? It can be, if a brand isn’t really behind its purported principles.
At the festival, the preponderance of purpose-driven campaigns has generated a backlash of sorts. Unilever CEO Alan Jope said that corporate “woke-washing” is “polluting purpose.” He suggested that the consumer goods conglomerate’s giant ad budget, worth well over $8 billion per year, won’t go towards agencies or other companies that deal in “false purpose.”
Plenty of research—including some published this week—shows that consumers are taking a brand’s social mission and, yes, purpose into account when making purchase decisions. To be sure, it can feel grubby to mix corporate marketing with issues like race, gender, and the environment. It’s a fine line that marketers must walk, with a high risk of succumbing to earnest but empty woke-washing.
But there is no denying the power of advertising. The global ad industry is worth nearly $600 billion per year. Using a share of that spending to address issues of social importance—on top of giving to charity, paying taxes, and all the other things enlightened corporations should also be doing—could genuinely make the world a better place (while, yes, selling more shoes).
Big brands, for better or worse, can draw on vast resources to reach large swaths of people all around the world. As John O’Keefe, worldwide creative director at mega-agency WPP, puts it, “If we can do good in this industry, why wouldn’t we?”—Jason Karaian
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Nothing to see there, folks. Hong Kong has been rocked by massive protests against a proposed extradition law that would send suspects to courts in mainland China. But within China, discussion about the demonstrations has been shut down, thanks to internet censorship techniques that have grown ever more sophisticated, as Nikhil Sonnad explains in a Quartz video. Meanwhile, Mary Hui explores one of the protesters’ key weapons: Cantonese wordplay.
Digging for data. In Ghana, a key challenge for government officials is a lack of data about citizens and how they live. That will change if the country’s first digital census goes according to plan next year. From Accra, Youyou Zhou reports on the project’s trial efforts, which involve computer tablets and questions like “Do you use a private toilet?” The results could help officials better allocate resources and formalize large segments of the economy.
The marketing of war. On June 20, Iran shot down a US military RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone. More than a decade earlier, its manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, pitched the Pentagon on expanding its Global Hawk fleet by presenting a hypothetical conflict with the Islamic Republic, writes Justin Rohrlich. The document recommends the defense department buy 157 of the drones, which cost up to $220 million each. There are currently just over 40 in use.
At your service. The gig-economy company Fiverr, which offers a freelance marketplace, went public this week. To mark the occasion, Alison Griswold used the platform to hire workers for a project: writing about the IPO itself. She found that while it’s easy to pay little for tasks, providing instructions is a pain and the quality of work is far from assured.
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Less of a mystery. The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in 2014 is often described as the greatest aviation mystery of all time. Much is known about the tragedy, however. For the Atlantic, William Langewiesche debunks conspiracies, tells the story of an independent American investigator who has traveled around the Indian Ocean finding clues, and speculates that Malaysian officials “know more than they have dared to say.”
The First Amendment may rest on Backpage. Some have accused an internet portal where for years the sex trade thrived of enabling exploitation and predation (and worse). But even those who revel in the downfall of Backpage see major trouble coming for all online platforms if the defendants lose their coming court case, reports Christine Biederman in Wired. At risk is the ability of digital destinations to continue avoiding liability for user-generated content, and other complex constitutional issues too.
Sworn to secrecy. Real estate agents catering to house-hunting celebrities must account for their clients’ need for privacy, and the use of disguises, fake names, and nondisclosure agreements is common. But as Candace Taylor writes for the Wall Street Journal, Hollywood stars aren’t the only ones demanding extreme privacy. So are rich buyers and sellers you’ve never heard of. Blame social media and surveillance cameras keeping tabs on seemingly every neighborhood.
Ripe for exploitation. One bright spot in Italy’s flagging economy is its booming agriculture sector. The country’s tomato industry alone is worth over $3.5 billion. But who picks the red fruit? In southern Italy, it’s mostly migrant workers from Africa. As Tobias Jones and Ayo Awokoya write in the Guardian, the laborers are essentially trapped by the mafia, which makes millions off their labor, in a modern form of slavery—one that doesn’t need chains.
Mourning for robots. The Jibo, a pet robot, generated a lot of media buzz in 2017, even landing on the cover of Time magazine. But it wasn’t a commercial success. Now, owners who’ve grown emotionally attached to their robot pals live in dread of Jibo’s servers going dark—they know it’ll happen, just not when. In the Verge, Ashley Carman looks into the surprisingly deep bonds humans can form with “sort of alive” devices.
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, master disguises, and drone sales pitches to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Steve Mollman and Holly Ojalvo.