Is purposeful advertising draining emotion from the industry?

Since 2016, 74% of the 101 Grands Prix at Cannes Lions have been purpose-driven. 

While this reflects more businesses embracing purpose, it has prompted furious debate in creative circles. Last year System 1 noted that the effectiveness of winning campaigns at Cannes Lions was falling, correlating this with a marked lack of humour in the winning submissions. 

[Is] purposeful work draining emotion from the ad industry and, with it, effectiveness?

Should we conclude from all this that purposeful work is draining emotion from the ad industry and, with it, effectiveness? The answer is yes, if purpose is not being done properly. 

Above: Liquid Death took inspiration from another sector for one of its campaigns.  

There’s a misplaced conception that purposeful work can’t be funny. Analysis from Revolt of the emotional strength of sustainability campaigns entered at awards over the past 10 years has revealed that most stick to the middle ground, to emotionless. Or, in other words, to dullness. 

There’s a misplaced conception that purposeful work can’t be funny.

But we know from the work of industry luminaries Adam Morgan and Peter Field that dull creative simply doesn’t move hearts and minds. It’s understandable why some campaigns end up dry and emotionless; brands are fearful of being accused of greenwashing and sometimes have a tendency to get caught up in complexities and over explain. But good purposeful work can - and should - be emotionally engaging. It can be funny, or surprising, joyous, fearful, angry… whatever gets the heart pumping and hairs standing on end. 

From our analysis we identified several key ways that brands can avoid being dull and drive impact through emotion. Firstly, you can drive deeper feelings. Let’s remember that sustainability is not an emotion in itself and can quickly become technical or dry. One tactic is to lean on inspiration from outside the category, for example, by stealing from another category. Energy drink Liquid Death did this when it took inspiration from plastic surgery for Death To Plastic to drive impact. Another is not talking about sustainability at all. Instead, act. Budweiser helped bars selling its beer transition to renewable energy, and then told this story in its advertising. 

Above: Surfers Against Sewage got down and dirty when it featured a surfboard made from raw sewage.

Secondly, purpose campaigns can drive gut feelings and creative can get really visceral. Take charity Surfers Against Sewage which created Floater, featuring a surfboard made from raw sewage. Or face fear head on, like Woolmark, which showed that, every 25 minutes, an Olympic-sized pool of oil is used to make synthetic clothing.

Finally, brands can create unshakeable feelings and cause trouble, if they need to. Channel 4 knew that it would get complaints with their Carbon Skid Marks ad, but also knew it would get people talking. And, sometimes, let the pictures speak for themselves. The Tuvalu foreign minister did when he was photographed giving a UN speech standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight rising sea levels. The photo went global. 

Doing purpose properly means driving and measuring effectiveness, and the latter is sorely missing right now.

So, there is no reason why we can’t see great, emotionally engaging, purposeful work winning at Cannes. We should see more purpose-led creative that is making great use of humour. Mars made quite a stir this year when it repurposed iconic ads for the likes of Bounty and M&Ms to deliver messages of hope for climate change. Humour works well in other categories, why not climate change and sustainability? 

But tackling dull creative is only part of the problem. Doing purpose properly means driving and measuring effectiveness, and the latter is sorely missing right now. Research from Revolt has revealed that only 14% of WARC’s ‘most effective’ purpose campaigns last year fully accounted for impact through established metrics. So, while brands may well be doing good in the world - eg, helping recover plastic waste from beaches –  they simply don’t know the impact they’re making, and can’t demonstrate their effectiveness.