If you watched the Oscars this past Sunday you were nailed over and over with ads that brought social justice issues to the table. It seems that these days every company and their sister corporations are doing so much to fix our broken world. If I didn't know better it would seem that laissez-faire capitalism has returned to its rightful place in American society as the corrective force that we should all feel foolish for thinking critically of. But to be honest the ad companies know their target audience, because I was fairly moved by the good Coke and Truenorth ads. (True confession: I don't even know what Truenorth does or what the company is, but I liked them from watching their ads that in no way describe anything about the company's purpose... but here's what I found when I googled it.)
And I was fairly content to think well of Coke and the other companies with their heart-warming and world changing claims via advertisements. That is until a few of the people I was watching with commented on how ridiculous it is for Coke to be advertising the scholarships they give to promising young high school students when at the same time playing a major role in a number of social injustices. Then the discussion turned to Dow Chemical's "The Human Element" commercials, which tried to clean up Dow's image after they failed to clean up the Bhopal Catastrophe and were exposed by a couple of "Yes Men."
A day after these conversations a high school student commented on TOMS Shoes and the great philanthropic opportunity TOMS provides. I was reminded of an event that some aquatances put on for TOMS, encouraging people to come out and "buys shoes for a good cause." My question was why couldn't they just send two pairs of shoes to those who need shoes instead of buying another pair of shoes they didn't need. TOMS' and the organizers of the event responsed that TOMS is a "for profit company." Then how come so much of their advertising is centered around the opposite of profit?
I don't think TOMS is a bad thing, and I think it's great that Coke is dishing out scholarship money, but is that really social justice or is that just fashion? A friend of mine recently passed on a beautiful and honest song about how we draw the lines of profit and fashion and justice and compassion. Blake & Kate combine some beautiful folk music with these ideas in a way that some dude on a random site that you came to via google can't do. But what might be a wake up call is not only that Blake & Kate, such young, though talented songwriters, are bringing these ideas to the forefront, but that even some high school kids that I work with are skeptical of the "social justice ads and promotions." That was maybe more shocking to me than seeing people getting carried away thinking that Coke's scholarship offers must mean we needn't be critical of Coke anymore. I mean what I said above: we must be careful where we draw lines between profit and fashion and justice and compassion... we must admit that Ethos Water is in some ways acting justly and compassionately, but, contrary to what their slogan says ("our mission is helping children get clean water"), that is not their ONLY mission... profit factors in somewhere. But let us not discount any of the good that is done, simply let us be realistic about the power buying Ethos Water or Truenorth snacks has.
Maybe we should be weary of any justice that doesn't require us to GIVE of ourselves and not just get... but let us also be weary of those who think justice and compassion do not exist.
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." -Wendell Berry
