Pinky swear protection + Why you can't trust advertising.

Hey Friends,

Good morning to everyone except for Senator Joe Manchin.

I decided I was going to slack off this week without writing a full article. So I pulled one from the archives, and ended up rewriting some of it, resulting in about 1,200 words (about 1,100 of them not included in the original article).

The article is about marketing and advertising. And politicians. You can’t trust any of them.

More on that later, but first The News.

Hot Takes

Week 42 of 2021

Protecting Insurrection Pinky Swears. Former President Donald Trump is suing the January 6th Commission to keep records during his presidency secret. And folks, let’s be honest, I think we can all agree that Trump is entitled to his privacy, especially if he is committing treason. Here’s more about this from CNN.

Bannon Found in Contempt. Trump’s buddy Steve Bannon blew off a subpoena from “commish one six” (you’re welcome team) and the house last night voted to refer him to the justice department for criminal contempt. Specifically, one of the most egregious charges is related to claims that Bannon wore two collared shirts at the same time. You can get the real details from ABC News.

China Does Not Want to Add You to Their Professional Network. LinkedIn told China they were looking to expand their network, but it seems like China has marked it as spam. The LinkedIn team has been getting tired of all the burdensome Chinese rules sliding into their regulatory compliance DMs so they decided to pull out. The BBC has more.

The Economic Rebound is Waiting on Workers. The puzzler of the month is the perplexing labor shortage. The biggest concern according to economists is the number of Starbucks which are closed, ruining coffee meetings and commutes to work. One theory: The Pandemic highlighted the ways people were selling their soul for work. The NY Times goes into detail.

We’re All Waiting on Joe Manchin. Currently, Joe is pretending to be in one party while helping the other. Evidence suggests he is actually bought by Big Coal (and he also IS big coal) since his state is one of only a couple that still depend on coal for energy. I cover this topic in this week’s article and CNN has more on this too.

In the Category of “These Jokes Write Themselves” Prince William and Kate recycle outfits to highlight climate impact of fashion. Twitter sounded off. One Twitter user (okay it was me) said this:

“How to save the world with a £14,000 jacket… Hint: wear it twice!”

BREAKING

• In a tragic accident on the set of Rust, Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun, causing the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
• Former President Donald Trump has announced he is creating a social media platform truthsocial.com because he’s not allowed on the others.

That’s it for the news, but reply to this email to let me know what else you would like to see me cover.

Until then, The Gist asks who can you trust?

Can you trust advertisers and politicians?

The Gist

Studies repeatedly remind us that most of us don’t trust politicians and advertisers, but how do we fix that? As one of my ad industry colleagues Jennifer Denney says “You have to start with the ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality from the consumer’s perspective.” (full article)

Indeed, the question is “what’s in it for me”. But the natural question is to ask “what’s in it for them?”

It’s hard to trust someone who is selling something.

When it comes to politicians, they are trying to sell something too. Consider Senator Joe Manchin, the obstacle to the Biden Agenda right now.

It seems like we’re watching a tale of two Joe’s.

Joe #1 wants to do something about climate change with urgency.

Joe #2 wants us to stop bothering the fossil fuel industry.

Manchin’s personal net worth and campaign funds come largely from the fossil fuel industry. His concerns with the bill are related to taxes on fossil fuels, which ultimately means his pocketbook.

Can we trust him or is he doing the right thing? What does this have to do with advertising?

I go into greater detail in this week’s article. Read it here.

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