We all want to change the world

Rain’s Kavita Ramrakhiani on page 9 discusses the danger of jumping on a cause bandwagon without credibility. In this, she echoes what TBWA’s global chief creative officer Chris Garbutt told me in our February 10 issue: at Cannes and other awards shows, he is seeing work shift from recognising causes to driving change in itself

It was International Women’s Day on March 8, and local efforts at celebrating and elevating women were poor, from what I saw. The Spin, on page 34, mentions some of the worst, but there were others. They range from the blandly irrelevant to the downright offensive.

A few research reports into women’s attitudes towards brands have also hit my inbox. These at least do not denigrate women, but they are still only neutral at best, rather than helping the cause, of equality or even truly acknowledging it.

Twitter’s head of brand strategy Alex Josephson on page 20 talks about the grass- roots # MeToo movement that spread worldwide in 2017 and made a big difference to social attitudes towards sexual harassment and assault.

He also looks at Nike’s championing of the NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the # BlackLivesMatter movement. That is an example of a brand taking a stance and doing more than just selling.

And he mentions Heinz’s Mayochup, which is an example of a brand just selling. And that’s OK. It’s a condiment. Its advertising doesn’t need a moral stance to be good.

When we polled chief creatives ahead of the Lynx, a lot of them predicted that cause work will be prominent. Women’s empowerment came up a few times. That’s topical in this region, where Saudi women have only been allowed to drive within the past year, and there are other issues affecting women that are more taboo and must still be alluded to rather than spoken aloud.

Consumers, we are constantly told, want brands to stand for more. And work that changes the world also moves juries.

The Lynx is introducing the Glass category this year, which should showcase some great campaigns. But as BBDO’s Paul Shearer says on page 15, let’s also look at good work for regular brands. There is a rash of amazing, worldchanging creative at the moment, and I’m sure every second presenter will mention Kaepernick. But it’s the Heinzes of this world that keep the lights on. So as we celebrate the work that changes the world and excuses our mercenary souls, let’s also celebrate solid, straight brand campaigns.

And on the rare occasions the two do fit together without a shoehorn, let’s celebrate that too.