8099_55_291010.qxd:55 04/03/2010 17:30 Page 70
BOOK REVIEW
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GUILTY AS
CHARGED
Donald Douglas is impressed by a new book by
Alex Hesz and Bambos Neophytou about getting
to grips with guilt and keeping it real
had a business idea a while ago for a website called neutralisemykar- The second reason we’re done with fear is that actually there is a whole
I
ma.com aimed at people suffering from the hangover you get from load of bad shit to be afraid of for real – remember how everyone said that
buying too much stuff. You’d go to the site, punch in what you’d bought 9/11 was just like the movies? Our fears have been realised.
(trainers, packaging, air travel, oil, tuna, diamonds, etc) and it would tell The second part of the book moves beyond fear, is less about advertis-
you how much you’d have to pay to charitable causes (via PayPal of course) ing and more about our collective state of guilt for what we’ve done to the
to realign your karma. Corporations would transparently provide all the planet. Guilt, the new master, is a more considered, cognitive and deeply
information required so you’d get an accurate karma calculation in dollars felt emotion and is less given to impulses and splurging on the VISA card.
to pay back and cleanse yourself of your guilt (like going to the gym after Guilt also employs a much more prolonged decision-making process
an all-nighter). and the new battle ground for marketers is the removal of consumer guilt
I was reminded of this when reading Alex Hesz and Bambos Nephytou’s via information and transparency. We’re looking for brands to ‘pop the hood
Guilt Trip, a timely, semi-worthy but fresh and occasionally funny book and show their workings’ and we want to get actively involved. In the
about the behaviours that got us into our current mess (less economic and Reparations chapter, they talk about how ‘responsible’ Obama tapped into
more environmental). It’s about the fear induced by over-consumption, the this need.
resulting guilt, and how to engage with the green consumer. It made me When you’re marketing around guilt in the green economy, success is
think of my idea above because, as a marketer looking for new tricks (and down to the detail and the authors show how companies are approaching
clients want case studies, case studies!), I didn’t actually come away with the different sources of consumer guilt and the potential risks in address-
any concrete examples of how to properly involve consumers one by one ing these. Approach one is ‘green washing’ (grandiose, cliché ridden,
beyond ‘ads’. forward-looking vaguery); second is the ‘bandwagoning’ advertiser who
This is often the problem with these books: like digital conferences, they does the odd bit of token green marketing because everyone is doing it;
string you along for ages and tell you the model’s broken, but don’t include and lastly we have the recommended approach, which is to not do it at all
many examples of solid ideas at the end. But maybe that’s precisely the if you can’t and, when you are ready to do it, to take it to heart.
point – because everything is changing so fast right now that it’s taken This is pretty much the kernel of the book – it’s about being authentic
advertisers (still using old tricks, let’s face it) a while to catch up, especially and real and you’re either an open company that engages with your con-
with the new, enlightened digital consumer. sumers or you’re not. So it’s back to that old chestnut of putting con-
Interestingly David McGee, retail director of PwC, told a recent Checkout sumers at the heart of the conversation and building a value exchange
conference that, like Great Depression consumers, Ireland’s consumers will and dialogue.
never recover from the guilt they feel over their over-consumption during And, I guess this is how consumers are – we don’t like being lied to, we
the boom years. know that certain industries find it hard to be good, and while we know how
Anyway, let’s get down to some definitions. The first part of the book is wrong and morally unfashionable it is to harm the environment we like air
all about defining fear. We are all done with unrealistic messaging around travel – we are willing to compromise when the circumstances benefit us
‘fear’ (McCarthyism, drink driving ads, Blair’s dodgy dossier, Bush, Olay and enough.
Twiggy spring to mind). Fear, which we’ve moved on from apparently, is It’s a good read. Buy it, read it, and study it or your competitors will shut
described as a primal knee-jerk ‘flight or fight’ reaction and, although a you down!
potent weapon in any marketer’s arsenal, doesn’t work anymore – it’s too
temporary, a bit unrealistic, hard sell and exhaustive.
Donald Douglas is managing director of
The main example the authors use here is how we all used to look at
Return2Sender.
Hollywood blockbusters, sinking ice shelves and stranded polar bears and
ask ourselves, “What are we going to do?”, whereas now we’re all going,
“Oh my God, what have we done – can I help?!”.
Guilt Trip: From Fear to Guilt on the Green Bandwagon by Alex Hesz and Bambos Neophytou
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 978-0-470746226
Volume 4 Issue 1 2010 Marketing Age 55
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