Can advertisers help combat radicalisation?
By Ben Welsh (left), chief creative officer, DDB Sydney
The recent spate of terrorist attacks has led to tragedy, sorrow, fear and hatred. Shock is followed swiftly by calls for better intelligence, more police powers and a curtailing of our civil liberties. Like a killer disease we focus on the symptoms, obsessed with finding a cure, seemingly disinterested in combating the causes.
Understanding awful human behavior invites accusations of condoning these acts, but surely, if we had a better understanding of what drives young men, and occasionally women, to kill and be killed in the name of Allah we would be closer to stopping them doing it?
If we were to look at the radicalisation process I suspect it would have many similarities with a marketing strategy and ensuing advertising campaign. It would commence by identifying the target audience, developing insights and a compelling idea, then tying it all together with a clever media campaign.
There may also be similarities with the typical recruitment for those pyramid-selling schemes; people getting in touch with people who are potentially susceptible to the idea. Word of mouth is still more pervasive than any ad so a word from a trusted source could be a key catalyst.
Whatever the pathway, it all starts with an insight into the mind of the would-be bomber. Minds are complex things, particularly young male minds. I remember being told by an expert in youth depression that drugs and alcohol abuse weren’t the root cause, rather the subject self-medicating because their problems hadn’t been identified.
How much do we spend on understanding and mentally inoculating against the risk vs beefing up security?
No doubt lots of very clever psychologists and anti-terrorism experts are working on this, but given the expertise of the advertising industry in spreading ideas, is there a role we could play? Certainly, food for thought.
19 Comments
Much of it comes down to the poorly thought-out creation of the State of Israel. Solve that, and much of the problem will go away.
Unfortunately, you can’t turn back time, and many of today’s issues arise out of the compounded complexities that have grown around that original decision, which itself grew out of previous territorial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences.
So by all means, let’s knock out an advertising campaign to achieve that.
A good morning’s work, for sure.
What a remarkably ignorant comment to make.
Not to mention hate mongering.
Why not? After all emotive and simple great ideas can move people very powerfully. On this scary topic politicians dither and are clueless, devoid of any effective strategies. Ad people at the top of their game are great communicators and if the dark shadow of global political interests can be managed in some way, there’s a half a chance. Pretty big ask.
We know the advertising industry is narcissistic at the best of times but this article takes it to a whole new level. Solving terrorism? Whatever next?
Really?
The advertising industries primary remit of ‘selling stuff’ is barely fulfilled, so let’s maybe pull our heads in a bit.
The advertising industry inhabits a parallel universe
A job for Clever Buoy it seems, another ‘real’ problem solver.
I do agree that we have the ability to influence society and not just reflect it. Work such as TAC, anti smoking, and other social cause work has made significant impact on serious issues. I agree it is possible to use the knowledge we have and influence.
Influence has worked negatively with powerful propaganda in the past, so why can’t it be used for a good cause?
Its comments like yours that help fuel hatred
To the know-alls who expressed moral indignation at my comment:
I am from a Jewish family.
My mother was a Holocaust survivor.
So I’m well-qualified to comment.
It’s not anti-semitic to question the way Israel was established.
it might be anti-Zionist though.
There’s a huge difference.
Try to separate the issues rather than conflating them.
First, you’ll have to free yourself from years, possibly a lifetime, of propaganda and brain-washing.
Believing that Israel is beyond criticism is akin to believing that everything the USA does is a force for good, and is done for the noblest of motives.
Do you believe that too?
I re-iterate: it’s extraordinarily arrogant and naive to think for a moment advertising can solve the middle-east conflict or its consequences.
(if you think I’m wrong, offer a counter-argument. It may require you to think.)
Good thought Ben – sadly some of the comments above reflect the lack of empathy amongst many in the industry. Of course the collective brains of the communication and marketing industries could do something to help change. And what a good time the coming week is for the heads of industry to get together and devise a plan for what they can do to help. Could DDB help pull a meeting like that together next week?
One of the more positive prices to appear on CB for so long.But hey who needs optimism when you can sneer and malign.
Frankly right now anything is worth a try in this troubled world.
Think it through. Who would be the target market for these ads? Will you be running them in Syria, in the midst of a war? Telling folks being bombed by The West that it’s not cool to bomb The West?
Maybe you could run them in Sydney. There enough stupid people stupid here who manage to completely ignore the causes of terrorism that you might win an award. Job done.
Believe it or not is where it’s at. Kudos to you sir/madam. Very troubling to hear thought leaders sprouting ill-conceived ideas like the article above. Look at the numbers of Westerners killed by terrorism vs the numbers of Middle-Eastern civilians killed by US foreign wars and ask yourself who needs the re-education campaign. Wars for oil cause terrorism. You can’t market your way out of that.
I think we can Ben, but only when ideas are judged on actually solving a problem not on whether it’s “award-worthy”. Unfortunately, most of the judges’ we call CD’s/ECD’s have only been schooled on how to determine the latter, so it’s tainted thinking already.The same can be said for creatives. We’re immature in the way we approach work. We don’t solve big business problems, we try to think of big world ideas for fame and notoriety. How about we change our industry first, for the good, and get back to what we’re supposed to be doing: Work that works. It would, however, be interesting to open the brief by starting with: The following problem won’t be entered into awards, but it might help make a difference.
As long as it makes a great case study for Cannes.
All this talk about awards is nonsense.There are many creatives who want to do work that WORKS.Stop tarring us all with same brush.
What’s with all the chest beating opinions on this thread.
This is the first time a true thought experiment has ever been posed here.
Surely the competitive advertising spirit and self aggrandising attitude one of us would have replied to Ben with a well formed thought.
Obviously not.