Last week’s Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) event featured a lively discussion about ethics and law.
The event exemplified the fact that there still exists a large gulf between what is ethical and what is legal, and that marketers need to continue asking themselves every day if the campaigns they’re executing pass ethical and legal muster.
Here’s my take: On the legal question, there’s an obvious answer: lawyers. Yes, we should be familiar with the DMCA, COPPA, Section 230 of the CDA and a whole host of other acronyms, but marketers will always have a symbiotic (and often contentious) relationship with lawyers.
That to me is much less interesting than the ethical question. The MIMA discussion highlighted just how often something can be legal and not at all ethical. But short of spending your days in the stacks brushing up on Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mills, how does one know quickly know if they’re being ethical?
There is of course the Colbertian feeling in the gut. Then there’s Social Media Business Council CEO Andy Sernovitz’s rule of thumb: Don’t lie to your mom.
I heard Sernovitz give that message recently at BlogWell, and I gather it’s a message he delivers at every such event.
It’s a great question to ask yourself. Is a campaign confusing? You might not think so, but think about your mom. Would she be confused by the tactics you’re using? If so, then executing that campaign is essentially lying to your mother.
Why is this important? As Sernovitz said, you can write great content but it means nothing if you don’t have trust.
P.S.: Sernovitz also said the difference between being honest and lying is disclosure. So with that…
(Full disclosure: Weber Shandwick colleague and Social Studies contributor Greg Swan is a MIMA board member.)