Why Doing "Good" in Marketing and Advertising is More about Everyday Decisions than What You Choose to Work On

Marketers and advertisers love to profess what industries or businesses they WON’T work on.

You’ve heard the usual suspects listed when fellow professionals share what products or services they refuse to promote on-principle: cigarettes, alcohol, oil, gambling, defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, chemicals— etc.

Good for them— I support people doing what they feel is right for their principles.?

But to me, when marketing and advertising seems to do the most harm to consumers is NOT when industries with clearly-dubious motives or typically-shady products are promoting themselves, but when brands that people have more reason to trust twist their messaging to the point of deception.?

During the spectacle of this year’s Grammy awards in February, one ad stuck out to me— the phrase “laser-drilled holes” was too jarring to go unnoticed— and as the Tylenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gels ad went on, I realized this “laser-drilled holes” phrase was a (very clunky) way of offering proof for WHY these little capsules released pain medication faster.?

I chuckled. This functional proofpoint was a strange one for some copywriter to have to put words to— ‘laser drilled holes’— but since Tylenol had clearly invested a lot of marketing heft (including this $900,000 ad buy for this single spot)— I decided to bite.?

I did what most Americans do. Googled it: “Laser-drilled holes Tylenol."

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And the first link to surface was a Washington Post article that cited a scientific study in a lab, finding that Tylenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gels actually release their acetaminophen payload SLOWER than basic, regular Tylenol tablets. Here’s the article, but I’ll save you the click by recapping: these “Rapid Release Gels” were slower to act, AND were more expensive, than just regular Tylenol.?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/11/14/rapid-release-tylenol-gelcaps-are-slower-dissolve-than-cheaper-tablets-study-finds/

Yikes.

When faced with this information and asked for comment, the product teams and selling pharmacies went into overdrive to defending their claim— which tied them into verbal knots. The company responses came off as ‘cringe’ (as the kids say).?

The spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson tried to clarify that “Tylenol Rapid Release Gels are the only over-the-counter pain reliever to feature laser-drilled holes specifically designed to release medicine faster than a conventional gelcap”—?

Meaning, it’s ‘fast release’ ONLY when compared to other gelcaps. Not other forms of pill, including the basic-version caplet that Tylenol has always sold since the beginning of time.?

Consumers clearly didn’t get the memo about that very finicky comparison, instead— just doing what every reasonable and sane person would, assuming they’d get the fastest relief possible to-date. ?

As the WaPo article goes on to cite, Amazon reviewers were convinced the premium they paid for “Fast Release” Tylenol amounted to faster pain relief: “Although a bit more expensive than the regular release pills, they are worth the purchase to get the pain knocked out within 5/10 minutes, versus the 20/30 minute wait for the original pill form to dissolve and enter your system.”

For that consumer’s sake, I am glad the placebo effect is real. But more broadly, it’s clear based on the quote and other reviewers that people are being deceived by this clearly-disingenuous piece of marketing.?

Look. I’m not going to get sanctimonious— because we’ve all BEEN there.?

We’re no strangers to clients overestimating, overhyping, or frankly just over-hoping, that their product or service is actually better than other options (even when there’s little or no evidence to back that up). As marketers and advertisers, FULLY ‘buying in’ to this sometimes-flimsy logic and sometimes-faulty evidence is an unspoken part of the job.?

For advertising agencies especially, it is nearly-necessary to keep one’s job. For generations, clients have fired ad agencies for small infractions regarding proper lack of awe for their product or service— when these stories of ruthless firings get retold, it reinforces the reverence required to client claims.?

But therein lies the challenge with our innate desire to do “good” and solely promote products in-line with our values and principles. The products or services themselves might be in-line with something we find squares with our beliefs— hey, who doesn’t like Tynenol, part of the storied, all-American Johnson and Johnson brand— but what about the decisions made about the WAY to bringing these products and services to market??

Why don’t more of us make a clear stand about what we won’t ethically do, and lines we won’t cross, when presented with a marketing initiative that tips the scales from embellishment into something more like… willful deceit??

In the wonderful world of marketing, this tipping point can admittedly be extremely blurry— but if consumers are being convinced pay MORE money for items such as “Rapid Release” gelcaps— thinking they will get relief from their pain faster— and not getting it??

Extracting more money from people just to relieve their actual pain SLOWER (?!)— well, that’s the definition of harmful. Despite not having anything to do with cigarettes, alcohol, oil, or any notorious industry.?

As marketers and advertisers, we’ve got to get better at standing firmly on principle not just when choosing accounts to work on, but in every day meetings, when sometimes-questionable choices are made in the marketing of the products and services we DID choose to represent.

Principles don’t only apply when we’re between jobs, or accepting new clients, they simply have to apply when we’re actively engaged in the work.?

Especially when we’re asked to be collaborators in creating claims that might cause real-world harm to people. It’s never easy to stand on principle, but if we don’t, we might be (unintentionally) opening up a world of pain for our customers.

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