The cows aren’t laughing: the psychological effects of meat, egg and dairy advertisement
The excess of meat advertising in our public spaces has become so normalised that we wander past giant images featuring the products of cruelty, violence and death multiple times every day, without stopping to question it. What does this say about our culture and how we are encouraged to relate to animals, and each other? […]
Are the values we instill in our children leading us towards a sustainable future?
In 2009, the children’s marketing sector was worth £100bn – and it’s still growing. A significant portion of this total is spent on food marketing, predominantly promoting energy dense, low-nutrient food and beverages – typically unhealthy for children, but marketed to exaggerate health claims – and messaging (often with the help of celebrities) to suggest […]
Treating people as consumers boosts materialistic values
“One of the most profound changes in our modern vocabulary is the way in which ‘We the People’ are defined”, observes the academic David Rutherford. “Not so very long ago, we ‘pictured’ ourselves as citizens. … Today, we are most often referred to (and therefore increasingly inclined to ‘see’ ourselves) as consumers.” Too true. There […]
Opening the ethical debates in advertising
We’ve suggested elsewhere that there are two broad categories of response to Common Cause. The first is to focus on the implications for the campaigns and communications that we are already producing: how might we campaign on biodiversity conservation, or disability rights, or cancer research, while simultaneously helping to strengthen those values upon which systemic […]