It seems that nowadays, there are advertisements everywhere lurking in the shadows and waiting to pounce at your wallet. From advertisements on TV to social media, it’s hard to get away from the constant feeling of being targeted to empty your pockets and buy things you don’t need.
The utter persistence of advertisements creates an uneasy feeling that companies only look at customers with dollar signs in their eyes. Advertisements nowadays even masquerade themselves as things like authentic social media posts from your favorite influencer. It’s hard to tell what’s genuine.
Advertising has an extensive history and has even been around since about 2000 BC. But it's innovative — new types of advertising emerge as technology advances. One particularly new advancement is cause marketing, which many argue first began use in advertising sometime in the 1970s.
Cause marketing is a strategy where companies advocate for a cause, like promoting mental health awareness or body positivity, and tie it into their marketing efforts to show that the brand stands for something but primarily in hopes to raise sales. It is powerful in showcasing that a certain brand isn’t just defined by what it sells but also by what it represents.
Many companies, however, miss the mark while using this method and come across as cringingly inauthentic and as simply engaging in virtue signaling. This is the act of publicly supporting a cause to seem politically correct and to shine a good light on yourself or your company.
It’s important for the success of a cause marketing campaign to choose a cause that’s actually related to the company and what it sells. This decision shows customers that your company is keen on creating change in the world through what your brand does.
Many companies foolishly choose to honor a social movement only because it’s trending and then make a lazy attempt to connect it to their company. Often, a company’s real intent is to reap the benefits from being part of a conversation on a topic that’s being talked about a lot. Ads associated with popular causes tend to gain more attention.
Companies hope to sell more products without investing the appropriate amount of time and resources in their cause needed to effectively foster social change.
Burger King’s notorious 2019 “#FeelYourWay” campaign — providing corresponding meals based on customers’ sad moods — exemplifies how spotlighting an unrelated cause is tacky and makes it seem like a company is trying too hard to be relevant. It raises awareness about de-stigmatizing mental health, but it fails to connect its product to this topic in a meaningful way.
So what is the right amount to invest in a cause marketing campaign to actually be able to make a change? While bringing awareness to a particular movement is a good start, brands need to also provide resources to help people who are suffering from things related to that cause.
Dove’s Self-Esteem Project is a cause marketing initiative that was executed flawlessly by both creating uplifting advertisements about body positivity and providing resources that promote confidence, offering guides, tips and more for kids and parents surrounding this issue.
Cause marketing, arguably growing more and more popular every year, is still difficult for some companies to implement in a genuine and tasteful way. Unfortunately many companies have failed to plan solid cause marketing campaigns and have damaged their reputations as a result.
On the bright side, companies can learn from other companies' mistakes and know what not to do. When done right, cause marketing is a powerful vehicle in sparking difference in the world and I’m looking forward to seeing more great cause marketing in the future.
Kara Acinapuro (she/her) is a junior studying media advertising with a minor in marketing. She is Vice President of Women in Media and a member of Alpha Phi Omega.
