The goal of every branding and marketing professional is to create highly effective and memorable campaigns. What is top of mind throughout the creative process, as well as when building out the media mix, are questions about how to best reach the target audience:

• Where should the campaign be placed?
• What messages will resonate best?
• What will make this memorable?

These are all very important and necessary questions. But there is another series of questions that we in the industry have a moral obligation to explore:

• Who shouldn’t see this branding or marketing tactic?
• Are there places this campaign should not be placed?
• If this specific piece of creative is placed here, what is the worst that could happen?

As a means of explanation, let’s examine some all-too-familiar, real-world examples of when effective marketing may create ancillary and problematic outcomes.

Think about what you are asking!

QR codes have never been more popular. The pandemic breathed new life into this relatively mature technology. It seems that they are the new go-to call to action (CTA) for advertisers.

“Learn more. Scan here.”

“Scan for your chance to win.”

“Point your phone here to make a reservation.”

But just because QR codes are easy to deploy and track, doesn’t mean that you should use them on everything. Putting a QR code on an outdoor billboard, as we have seen quite a bit of lately, is just flat-out irresponsible. Do those advertisers really want commuters grabbing their cellphone to scan a QR Code as they drive by at 60mph?

The same issue holds true for “Text To…” campaigns. Organizations are using CTAs like, “Sign up now by texting ‘Read’ to 123-456-7890.” That’s fine, except when it’s an ad that’s on the side of a bus, where 80% of the people who will see that ad are actually in their cars. Clearly, the agency that came up with this concept didn’t think through the fact that the outcome of their ad would be people texting while driving.

Generating calls, web traffic, sign-ups, etc., are all good results, but not if the ultimate outcomes include property damage and personal injury.

Think about who you are reaching.

Not only should advertisers avoid anything that might cause actual harm, we should also avoid, as best possible, creating unintended discomfort. This happens when we deploy tactics designed to reach a specific demographic but forget about all of the other demographics we might reach with that same tactic.

An example that comes to mind is the NFL.

According to statistics, more than 70% of Americans who engage with an NFL football game on a weekly basis are men over the age of 50. This statistic, of course, has not gone unnoticed by the makers of ED medicines, male enhancement products, and “man boosting” formulas.

What the statistic regarding “men over 50” watching NFL games doesn’t show, however, is that a large percentage of those older men are watching those NFL games with their children or grandchildren. If you use your imagination, you can hear those children and grandchildren asking in the sweetest, most innocent, little-kid voice, “Papa, what’s erectile dysfunction?”

Enjoy the game Pops!

Seriously, though, if one of the marketing goals is to lessen the amount of stigma surrounding these types of issues, raising the subject with men in front of their kids and grandkids seems to be at odds with that objective.

Think about where your brand is being seen.

Would your spouse be OK if they saw you walking out of a bar with a stripper?

If the answer is no, then it probably wouldn’t matter much if you and the stripper were leaving together or just leaving at the same time.

Digital and social advertising can be a lot like this if you don’t do a thorough vetting of your placement. Many digital ad buyers base their buy solely on demographic information. The buy reaches a specific age, income level or gender that is living in a specific geographic area, and that’s where the filtering stops. Serious thought should be given to filtering out websites that may be antithetical to your brand values.

An example of this happened recently on X/Twitter, when several companies had their ads run on an account celebrating Hitler and Nazis.

In many cases, objectionable websites can be filtered out of a buy. With large buys that span across hundreds or even thousands of websites. However, it’s almost impossible to filter out all objectionable sites.

Even more difficult to filter out is when your ad appears in content that isn’t appropriate. Everyone wants their ad to go viral… just not like this:

But wait! There’s more.

By no means are the above examples exhaustive. They merely illustrate the kinds of collateral issues modern branding and marketing professionals should be trying to avoid. While we have a professional obligation to help our clients, we also have a moral obligation to understand and consider our wider impact. Protecting the brands we represent and respecting the people we reach on behalf of those brands should be non-negotiable elements to every campaign.