or is success gained at the expense of others worth it?
The question of business ethics has occupied my mind for years. Beyond the regulation of the ÖRT, the advertising law, or possibly the industry regulations, how far does the social responsibility of those accepting advertisements extend? I ponder this responsibility as an external observer of two campaigns that are separated in space and time.
Surely you remember the unfortunate case of „Fluimucil Ábel” with the pharmaceutical distribution company. He drove the whole country crazy with his „whys,” and shortly thereafter, we were flooded with a tsunami of memes.
It concerns a four- or five-year-old child actor. The little son of a large family, who is overly curious about the effectiveness of a medication in a way that is characteristic of his age.
When the community punishes immediately
Some do so because it is enough for them to answer similar questions from their own children at home (I am sure there are significantly fewer of them), while others find it unimaginable that one day they will show this world to someone else, even while balancing on the threshold of their own childhood and adulthood. There is nothing wrong with that.
Much more concerning is why the anger, the demand for „public execution” focused solely on this little person? Most importantly, neither the creators of the advertisement nor the employees of the pharmaceutical distribution company stood up in public, nor did they defend the child who had gone through a series of castings and who did nothing more than play his assigned role well. Moreover! Seeing the wonderful sales, they even took another cut from the creative.
How far does the task extend, and where does responsibility begin? Do I need to increase my market share by one or two percentage points, or perhaps bring in a few hundred million more? With an advertisement that breaks the monotony of pharmaceutical ads and stirs emotions, the task has been accomplished. But what will happen to that little person who will be embarrassed for life due to the interests of the business side even before crossing the school gate? At that time and place, no one rushed to help the little guy...
A truly unconventional Mother's Day
In contrast in Magyar Telekom's 2019 Mother's Day campaign the community had already punished severely. Yet the business side recognized that there is an increasingly urgent and important topic. Our aging society increasingly demands the return of the concept of multi-generational families. Young people must support and help their parents and grandparents, who are struggling with health issues or are feeling lonely. (I note in parentheses that in Hungary, 250,000 people are affected by some form of dementia, and nowhere in the world is the institutional network solved. There are not enough, and there will not be enough homes specialized for the elderly – possibly suffering from severe mental illness – to meet the demand).
So, there is a deep social problem to dissect.
And there is also a business solution – let’s talk more with our parents and grandparents! Let’s not be hypocrites – a telecommunications company must take this opportunity. Moreover, it is a very well-executed film in the case of the „Sorry Mom! – An Unconventional Mother's Day” advertisement.
The question immediately arose: Is it permissible to build such an important topic on collective guilt?
Is it permissible to invoke the already struggling conscience of mothers in their 30s and 40s on Mother's Day?
It may also happen that the creators of the advertisement do not know this „shoe” – in this case, however, the lack of insight is striking.
Fortunately, in 2019, the community provided immediate and massive feedback. Thanks to the telecommunications company's quick response, the anger did not become unlimited and uncontrolled. (I would be very curious about the sales figures; perhaps we will find out this someday.)
Returning to the fundamental dilemma:
- Is it permissible to jeopardize the private life of a child actor for the sake of a successful business?
- Is it permissible to draw attention to a serious social problem by appealing to the conscience of a social class?
We can encounter countless similar cases. With conscious expertise, the individual social sensitivity of the advertisers, and the appropriate use of insight, well-intentioned harm could perhaps be avoided. That's why our profession is so exciting!
