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By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

Corporate Social Responsibility...we meet again. We get it; people are tired of being sold to. With the Information Age in full swing, people can find out what their products are made out of, how organizations treat their employees, and how true to the environment and their promises organizations are being. And yes, everyone's finger is pointing at advertising.

Questus, an advertising agency, is producing a documentary called The Naked Brand. It is about how corporations must adhere to being transparent in business practices and use their seemingly unlimited resources (advertising included) to save the world we live in.

Below is the trailer.

We, too, believe that advertising has the ability to change the world we live in. As we have always said, advertising is the language of business. If businesses commit to making the world a better place, advertising is the channel most businesses are going to use to get its message across. But it is not just advertising practices that have to change; it's business practices as well. In one of our recent posts, we talked about Havas' David Jones and his book Who Cares Wins and that businesses that commit to practicing good business will benefit in the long run. Even at Cannes, Bill Clinton said that advertising has the power to change and influence the minds of others. We all know this.

This is not a novel concept.

As businesses focus more on cost cutting than "doing good," consumers, as well as business leaders, need to change the way they think. The market itself has to put a value on implementing good business practices and patronizing those businesses instead of cutting costs, providing a cheap good or service, and still amassing substantial profit. Consumers as a whole have to move their purchasing power away from those businesses who could care less about the environment or other noble causes. If there's a market, there are going to be businesses filling its needs.

The naked-brand idea is a great one, but even as idealistic as we are, we don't see the do-gooders prevailing over the cost-cutters. We believe that truth in advertising is important. It's necessary. But it is important for consumers to care about that truth as well.

Hopefully this film and the efforts of others prove us wrong.

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About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

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