The Truth well told!

Henry McCann opened his, now world-wide Advertising Agency known as McCann-Ericksen, in 1912 with these words as his slogan. I joined the Trinidad’s branch of Norman, Craig & Kummel (a competitive agency) in 1979 with the same sentiments, sentiments that have continued to be my guiding light through my thirty-three years in this business, from NCK being assimilated by Foote, Cone and Belding and ending in me opening my own Agency, HFCB Advertising, in Barbados.

Over the years I’ve refused to run, sometimes to the detriment of my bottom line, claims that could not live up to this paradigm. I held the view that I was not alone in this strategy within my industry, certainly there were individuals who broke this unwritten rule, but all-in-all my industry was truthful.

In fact I saw advertising as an integral part of bringing day-to-day knowledge to the masses, not earth shattering nor humanity uplifting knowledge, but knowledge all the same. Knowledge that people could use to make the everyday decisions that help them to make their journey through life.

I took this responsibility seriously and time and time again refused to abdicate it at the alter of the almighty dollar. Then I moved to America and saw that in fact the almighty dollar has so many more acolytes than I ever thought it could have.

I mention America since I now have actual experience but logic tells me it is a symptom not so much of a place but of a stage in a civilization’s development…I now suppose that all the “so-called” developed nations suffer the same aliment.

The first thing I had to get, when I arrived, was a cell phone service. Not only to keep in touch with my business contacts in Barbados, but also to reach out and touch my son (in a Toronto University), family in Barbados and Trinidad, not to mention my sister and brother-in-law in Miami.

Naturally I turned to the advertising literature available for the companies offering these services and the plans available. What I found was astounding, not one company, of which there are many, could be held accountable for what their advertising preached.

In all cases the actual cost of the service offered was more than what was advertised…what was promised.

I was appalled!

The one line that most offended, was, ‘FREE International Calls!’

At each service that I subscribed to, I found out, only after I initiated the service, and only after reading the hundred or so pages of 10pt and/or 8pt (small) type, that The line really read, FREE International Calls…up to $10.

First: Free means no limits, if there are limits then it is not free and using free to describe it is just wrong and if done deliberately is fraud. Secondly: what’s wrong with saying the service comes inclusive of $10 worth of International calls. That’s just as strong and it’s the truth. FREE is misleading.

And this in not the only example of this style of advertising I’ve noticed. It’s rampant, the incorrect use of the English language to bolster the salability of a product or service, most without substance to these claims.

What is worst though, is the acceptance that my sister and brother-in-law and by extrapolation (due to the fact that no-one else is complaining) the rest of the population have of these advertising lies.

Having spending over thirty years in the advertising industry and upholding what I thought was a common integrity across the industry it is heart rending to see that, in fact, I was obviously in the minority and that the industry does not stand up to my expectations of it.