ABSTRACT
I want you to accompany me on a flight of fancy. Let us suppose for an instant that advertising really could become “legal, decent, honest and truthful”. That Edward Bernay’s Propaganda could be cleaned up and straightened out. That the multiple tools of marketing could also be detoxified. That brands could become assertive rather than manipulative. And that all this effort and expenditure could be put to work in the interests of people and the planet rather than the corporate elite. If all the creativity, ingenuity and chutzpa of marketing were focused on saving polar bears and eliminating single use plastics instead of on boosting sales and enriching shareholders. If the job of marketing was to nourish decent citizens rather than to mould needy consumers; to maximise wellbeing whilst minimising consumption.
Actually this isn’t so far-fetched. Marketing, like business itself, is as old as the human project. Its basic precepts aren’t about deception and manipulation, but understanding the needs of the person you want to do a deal with so you can make a more rewarding offer. It has guided human cooperation for millennia and can do so again. A visit to the pub illustrates the point.
