Disclaimer: I published this Post originally over at Social, Media & Company. This is a cross-post

Dear Marketing,

congratulations you are once again making a fool of yourself! I mean don’t get me wrong, eventually you’ve understood that people care about the way the product gets produced, its quality and the service around it.Good for you! But there is one lesson you never learn: It’s not about saying, it is about doing it. And with nowadays technology and world-wide networks and organisations like greenpeace there is no easy hiding anymore. So what is your answer, marketing? You do greenwashing and adverts showing the company friendly, supportive and offering the best and easiest service - while they do not. We normal people call this “lying”: you help companies to pretend being better than they actually are.

Of course, you are doing it for the money, so no harm there, eh? But do you guys know the story of the boy who cried wolf? And in the end no one believed him, when there was a wolf? When I was a kid I was told the story every time I was caught lying. And it has point; if you lie people don’t believe you, don’t trust you any. So if anyone at all is believing the ads you are doing lately, they won’t do it much longer. Leaving companies who actually care at a bad place: they can’t advertise with these terms and those promises. Those got broken too often for anyone to believe them. So even if those companies grow bigger the only way to make people believe that they care is by actual action, by doing it. Advertising this is pointless, might even does harm as people question it. Got it?

Even when those companies grow there isn’t much point in doing classic advertising as no one will believe them! This way of pretending without action you, dear Marketing, are supporting at big companies nowadays isn’t only bad for the company it is bad for you! By doing this you are making yourself useless, destroying your own future. You should seriously consider being more picky about your clients: choose those with the good product over the one with the pile of money and ensure that what has been said gets done. But most important: don’t Lie! Only if people can trust advertisments, they might consider believing you. And only if people believe and trust you, you stand a chance when the upcoming companies with good service and high quality products grow bigger and re-evaluate their communication strategies. Think about it!

With kind regards,
Benjamin Kampmann