Advertising Internationally: Comparing enterprise, creativity, innovation, working conditions and ethics across borders.

When you take a moment to think about the enormity of advertising in our world, it can be quite overwhelming. When you think about it, it is everywhere we look. Billboards, metrolites, television commercials, flyers, signs, brochures, catalogues, paid posts on social media, banner ads, internet pop ups, floor decals in supermarkets, blimps, algorithms that take our Google searches and give us more and more products similar to what we have looked up. In every corner of the world there is some form of advertising, which begs the question, how do you stand out in all of this obscene chaos? How do you make something that grips an audience, that demands attention? In an age where people are bombarded with information at every turn, individuals have learned how to filter out information and details that they believe to be irrelevant, how do you stay relevant? Further than that, how do you create an idea that crosses borders? How to you create something that appeals to people in different countries, of different races and with different beliefs, policies and social norms? The answer to all of these questions, and the way to create successful and dynamic international advertising, is through enterprise, creativity and innovation.

American advertising creative director Bill Bernbach once said, ‘nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make’ (Scarpelli, 1999), which I believe to be true. There are two forms of successful advertising: there is the overexposure approach, where the brand will be forced upon a consumer in any way, shape or form until the image/slogan/product is inevitably burnt into their skulls, or alternatively, there is the innovation method, where a product is marketed so cleverly and strikingly, and is so perfectly tailored to its audience that a consumer will proactively ponder it themselves. Personally, I prefer the second.

This brings me to my first point about international advertising; that it is almost impossible to create a global advertisement. As aforementioned, the difference in the cultures is astronomical. What’s socially acceptable here in Australia, may be considered extremely offensive elsewhere. Content laws are different country to country, as are beliefs, religions, language. In order to be successful, advertisements must have the ability to be fluid and malleable to different cultures. Take for example, a advertisement for Pattex superglue in Egypt. The advertisement features women dressed in a traditional modest hijab, carrying jugs of water on their heads — a historic method of transporting food and water. The women have their arms by their sides, with the advertisement obviously suggesting that the Pattex superglue has been used to stick the jugs to the women’s heads. This campaign is extremely clever, as it uses appropriate cultural reference to relate to it’s audience — had the same product been marketed in other countries, a different approach would have been used. The Pattex advertisement is striking, bold and humorous, and is a stellar example of how to use creativity and innovation to represent a South African product in the global market.

Chris Moore said that ‘ads for reputable companies almost never lie’ and this is true. The larger, more powerful and more affluent the company, the greater the downfall — especially when they have so many more people peering over this shoulder. With this being said, agencies always want to paint their client in the best light: ‘So we tell the truth — but not always the Whole Truth. Like … when you go on a job interview or a first date, you don’t assume a false identity — but you probably don’t make a full disclosure either’ (Chris Moore, 2004).

On this thread of companies good behaviour, recently consumers have become more and more knowledgable about the origin or products and how they are made. Organisations such as the RSPCA have public named and shamed companies for animal cruelty — especially in the poultry industry — and consumers have a conscious now more than ever regarding ethical consumption. Although, ‘literature highlighting the growth of ethical consumption tends to focus on low value, commoditised product categories such as food related products, cosmetics and apparel’ (Davies, Lee & Ahonkhai, 2011). Another consideration, are the names of charities and good causes compromised by the hand-outs of companies? Do they sell out their values to boost the face value of said companies? A stellar example of this is when ‘a major advertiser donated a quarter-million dollars in food aid to Bosnians in the wake of the war there. By all accounts, the aid did a lot of good. Later, the company spent over a million dollars to advertise their good deed to American audiences’.

The final issue involving ethics in advertising, is the question of whether it is ethical to force people to buy things that they necessarily don’t need. In an international sense, this is applicable anywhere and everywhere. Although it must be said, at the end of the day we all make our own decisions. We choose to purchase gaming consoles and artwork and candles and a matter of other luxuries, and we cannot push the blame onto those who encourage us along the way. Advertising agencies merely fuel these desires, creating mirages of fulfilment and aspirational lives. Take for example the Old Spice ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ advertisements, which depict a shirtless attractive man appealing to all the women watching. He compares himself to the men in their life, telling the women how much better he is than them, all because he wears the Old Spice deodorant. Women want to date this man and men want to be him — this is a prime example of aspirational advertising. Is it shallow? Yes. Is it unethical? Debatable. Does it work? Absolutely.

In terms of working conditions, advertising is a very strenuous industry — ‘In 2000, almost 38 percent of the people in this field reported working 50 hours or more per week’ (Career Education Advisor, 2013). I believe the stresses and strains of this industry are very consistent across all first world countries, and are only becoming more prevalent with time. As companies start to believe and invest in open plan offices, the entire concept of privacy vanishes. Workers become anxious that others are looking over their shoulders, judging their work and how much they’ve done. Heightened states of anxiety then hinder progress and initially ‘creative’ open spaces become narrow. With the increase of technology and our online presence also comes an increase in the amount of work an employee is expected to do at home. With our emails, documents and the internet at our fingertips, employees feel the pressure to start answering emails on the train on the way to work, make a few phone calls on the way home, and finish that document the night before the meeting. The line between work and life blurs as the workload is piled on, employers expectations grow higher, and employees feel the heat to perform in an over-monitored and always accessible workplace.

In summary, I believe that working conditions and ethics are very cohesive across the borders of first world countries, while skills in creativity, innovation and enterprise need to be flexible in order to be applicable and successful in different communities.