What Happens to Marketers Who Lie

Lying is wrong from a moral standpoint, sure, but few of us think about how terrible it is for our health.

With every lie we tell, we create two realities that our brains have to keep track of: the one that the lie exists in, and the one that actually is.

But that’s not all, studies show that the best way to beat a lie detector test is to believe wholeheartedly in what we’re saying. Like an actor, we’re more convincing when we’re ‘in character’. That means you not only have to sell others on your BS, you also have to sell yourself. At least until the people you’re lying to aren’t around anymore.

Problem is, every time someone points out where the reality that actually is contradicts the reality we fabricated, we’re stuck: do we admit the lie and accept what is, or do we protect the lie even if we have to destroy what is true? Choose the latter, and we’ll have to create lies to cover up the original lie. And with every new lie, reality for us splits yet again.

This is why people become ‘trapped’ in a ‘web’ of lies. They’re force to spend every waking moment in a world of their own fabrication, doing more and more things they don’t believe in just to hold it together. Their minds work overtime, all the time, struggling to keep up. Pretending until they can’t tell the difference. Until they go mad, for what is madness but the belief in realities that don’t actually exist?

Here’s where it gets scary: while most of us don’t believe that the Virgin Mary is speaking to us or that we are Napoleon reincarnated, many of us lie like crazy at our day jobs. To be clear, I’m not talking about exaggeration—stretching facts to tell a brighter and stronger story—we all do that to some extent, and sleep soundly at night having done it. Nor am I talking about the lies that could lead to federal indictments. Everyone knows to steer clear of those. No, I’m talking about the mundane lies, like having to pretend that our company makes the world’s greatest widget, or that millions of people can’t wait for the substandard product our team is making to reach store shelves, when that hasn’t been true for years or was never true. It’s even worse for marketers, because they not only have to trick themselves and their co-workers, they have to convince their customers too.

Here’s the truth: branding is never enough. Great branding that masks a bad product is a lie. One that’s even worse than terrible branding that masks a good one. Case in point: that time Steve Jobs hired Paul Rand to brand Next vs that time when Steve Ballmer believed the only endorsement Windows needed was Steve Ballmer.

So while bad branding is a relatively easy fix, bad products are a much harder pill to swallow. As a marketer you can try to change the former, but in most cases, the experts will be damned if you expect serious changes to the latter. Whether they secretly know it or not, the company’s too far gone. You can continue to collect their pay checks, convince yourself that the whole operation is really this close to turning the corner, and deal with the repercussions of “what were you thinking?” and the damage it’s doing to your career later. Set aside a booze budget for coping and ride that crazy train straight off the rails! Or you can find a healthier environment.

And leave an honest note on your way out prominent enough for others to see: Do not bother to resuscitate.

You’ll feel much better.

What do you call a freelancer who Isn’t just in it for the money?

In days of yore, ‘freelancer’ was practically a dirty word.

Back when loyalty counted for something, the lord would have his trusted knights whom he, or his father before him, had given land in exchange for troops and service when the drums and horns sounded for war.

These men (and occasionally women) were knights, men-at-arms, practically family.

They and their fathers before them had sworn oaths to defend the lord and his fiefdom to the death.

Freelancers, on the other hand, were just that: a free lance. Traveling mercenaries loyal to no lord who were just as likely to sack Constantinople as free the Holy Land, depending on who was easier to loot.

Is it any wonder that they frequently got the worst jobs—the most mind-numbing, soul-killing, life-threatening missions? If freelancers are only around to fight your money, then it’s best for your money if after the fighting there are no freelancers around.

Employers today may no longer be trying to literally work their freelancers to death, they’re still throwing them stuff nobody else wants to do—working late to produce the ideas that are least likely to survive, let alone taste glory.

But what if you took a more chivalrous point of view? Out of the same age from which the freelancer rode, also came the knight-errant. A warrior who tested his skills by wandering the land, aiding men and women from all walks of life.

The knight-errant lived by a code. Where mercenaries fought for money, the knight-errant fought for love. They embarked on quests to solve problems nobody else would.

There’s a reason video games about driven characters with noble purposes sell better than ones about desk workers and indentured servants.

These men and women were shining examples of what we could all be.

Why does this matter now?

Between automation, downsizing, daily predictions of an imminent recession, and the rise of the gig economy, it would seem the old retainer model of full-time employment is on its last legs.

We are entering once more into a period of great upheaval. And it is in these times when the institutions that enforce social norms are collapsing and our truth sources can no longer be trusted (our celebrities are secretly monsters, followers are bought, news is easily faked, and government is a circus), that we must rely instead on judgment of character and word-of-mouth. On older, more deadly serious markers of quality like integrity, and honour.

Time also to reckon with an exciting truth: we have always been self-employed, because our job security is totally dependent on us. How we carry ourselves, how we sell our solutions, how we execute on our promise. When your reputation is all that matters, then it’s your job to make sure it precedes you. And just as in times of old, the most-often told legends are about mighty deeds done in the service of others. We live in a world where several platforms exist purely to spread the word. That should be as much permission as we need to do the things our companies deem too risky, too expensive, too outside their interests. So pick a problem, the world and your community is filled with them, and vanquish it. Most political ads suck and the one good councillor out there running for election could use your help. Despite children screaming at the UN, the world still doesn’t care enough to reduce its consumption. The opioid crisis is still out of control. And if all of these are too grand for your level, there’s always the organization you’re in right now. Freelancers have an objective opinion that the right ears want to listen to, and you have the freedom to voice it that lifers do not. Don’t try to fix these issues because it will garner attention, generate profits, or even because they can be fixed by you alone. Do it because you are uniquely situated and skilled to do it, because that’s what knight-errants do.

The freelancer model is best-equipped to adapt to the modern economic landscape. Steady jobs are vanishing, so whether your craft is the sword or the pen, you’ll have to hit the road.

But that doesn’t mean you have to be a mercenary.

Your lance is finally free. That means the decision of which giants it will take down, is yours.

Note: I hope you enjoyed this post. More than any other, this has been one I’ve mulled over for quite sometime. I really believe that freelancers, and freelance creatives in particular, have a freedom and duty to act better and do more. What’s more, while freelancers are often left off credit sheets and award entries, you nonetheless deserve to be celebrated just as much as any creative. If you agree, please sign up to my mailing list for updates and ideas on how we can make this happen. Thank you! -Richard

Regret

Look at the opulence and grandeur of any cathedral and you can understand the success of the ritual of penance.

Buy forgiveness for your sins? More like buy the priest some new shoes and a bigger steeple. Am I right?

Beyond the cynicism, lies a reason why it works: for what is a sin but some action you regret, and what is penance but an attempt to atone for it—to make right what you did wrong? We all know God isn’t going to go back in time and reverse your mistake, but maybe, in a grand cosmic sense, this money or these prayers you just put forth will shift the balance the evil your sin caused with some good. Maybe it will make you worthy of forgiveness.

“But that’s not enough! My money won’t make a difference.” Then do something that will. If money or words won’t reverse the mistakes, then dedicate yourself to preventing the same mistakes from ever being made again. If it’s too late to do what you should have when you were younger, make sure others choose a different path. Even if it’s too big to fix, then a small change is better than none. You may not have forgiveness yet, but you can make room for it by getting rid of the hatred. While you can’t change what happened yesterday, you can set yourself up to feel good about tomorrow.

Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash

And if you should get offered penance by someone for wrongs they committed in the past? My answer would almost always be: accept. Regardless of whether it goes to you or some church-builder, the effect on the wrong-doer is similar. But the forgiveness that would lighten another’s conscience grows heavier on yours the longer you withhold it.

But who the hell am I to tell you what to do? Nobody, you’re right. The decision is yours. I’m certainly no authority, just somebody who’s made as many mistakes as the next guy, has helped make some right, and has many more he needs to fix.

We all have things we want to take back, and people whom we wish could forgive us. Don’t let refusals turn into more regret.

Madison Avenue's Terrifying Truth

I've been thinking a bit about Howard Gossage and the reasons I wanted to make ads in the first place.

And why some people hate what we make so much.

The common criticism is that we're all liars, but if all advertising was false then our work wouldn't resonate.

The problem isn't that great ads aren't 'true' on some important level...

It's that the solutions offered (e.g. buy a better perfume) aren't sufficient to achieve the aspirations presented (fulfilling relationships).

More than A.I., this will be the biggest problem facing our industry going forward.