The Dangers of Good Intentions

Ad Age, in a December 28 post, captured a few of the high-profile ads from 2020 that, in attempting to capture salient sentiments of a challenging year, missed the mark by a lot. Worse, actually, the ads sounds in retrospect to be tone-deaf, totally missing (or mishandling) the emotionally-laden context.While it is easy to chuckle and shake one's head at such miscues, here is something to ponder: every single one of these ads was vetted by a group of agency and client executives, and every single one got the green light for production. The point is that, despite our best intentions and efforts, things sometimes go sideways. And when sideways and high-voltage intersect, the risks are compounded. Be careful out there.