THRILLING EXHILERATING SENSATIONAL SCANDALOUS EXCITING MIND-BLOWING AWESOME SEXY SPONTANEOUS TOTAL COMPLETE CERTAIN FINAL FIRST ONLY TODAY NOW MORE SHOCKING EXPLOSIVE YOUNG NAUGHTY HEALTHY SUCCESSFUL RIGHT LATEST MOST BETTER FOR YOU.

POVERTY ABUSE STARVATION DEATH INJUSTICE CORRUPTION DISEASE RIGHTS RESPONSIBILITY DEGREDATION PROCESS EXCLUDED SOCIAL WRONG COST EXPLOITATION ASSESSMENT WEAK DAMAGE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER HELP SUPPORT CONTRIBUTE SAVE EXTINCTION STOP HOMELESS THINK INEQUALITY GLOBAL WORSE FOR THEM.

Two paragraphs a world a part. Which world do you live in?

If you inhabit in the first one, very sorry about the second.

If you live in the second, bad luck – sounds awful! May I recommend you go to one of these organisations for help, take your pick, I’m sure at least one of them will be able to sort you out.

OXFAM WWF SAVE THE CHILDREN ACTION AID CHRISTIAN AID SHELTER FORUM FOR THE FUTURE CODEP ACCOUNTABILITY TRADE JUSTICE MOVEMENT SUSTAINABILITY UNESCO NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION INCLUSIVE QUALITY PROJECT SAMARITANS GREENPEACE COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NSPCC RSPCA RED CROSS RED CRESCENT BIOREGIONAL ETC

The latest promotional magazine insert produced by Save The Children featured the following statements.

"Just 10p a day can save a child from poverty…Just 10p a day can help give a child a future."

The insert featured stock pictures of bright eyed but impoverished looking children from different ethnic groups. The enclosed letter, addressed to the potential donor, began with "I hope you will forgive me for writing to you. As the director general of Save the Children, I often ask people for their help."

Charles Dickens would have been proud; "Please sir, can I have some more?" You have to wonder why an organisation that has been campaigning and raising money for so long, chose to address the public in such a way?

I suppose that over the years, campaigning organisations like Save the Children must have worked out that the ‘Dickens School’ of making people fill-in-a-form-and-post-it-off-in-the-supplied-envelope, is the one that works. When you think about it, very rarely do you see any other approach - so it must be working. As it’s used so widely, it would be interesting to see the market research on the failed campaign strategies used before this one was adopted. I expect the communications agency involved in this effort will have used this data to rule out any other way of doing it.

After all, when your job is to raise money to save people’s lives it’s quite important that you get it right. So it’s great that these organisations are supported by communications agencies that understand the potential impact of the work they do and produce thoroughly researched work of such a high standard. Just as well, because think how bad it would seem if it were discovered that more time has been spent working out how to sell chocolate to children than how to raise money to enable them to survive!

So be thankful that we have all these organisations working to make the world a better place, and being given the right advice and support by communications agencies, so we don’t have to worry about it, and can get back to being entertained.

That’s why you don’t need an organisation like Ethical media, whose vision is to lead by example to improve the service that organisations with a positive social or environmental purpose. That’s why we don’t exist. That’s why there is no market for our services, why we have never existed and continue not to exist and why I’m not writing this article.

Ok enough.

Which came first…effective communications or positive change?

I don’t mean to single out the work for Save the Children by any means, compared to most of the stuff you see theirs isn’t bad – at least you see it! But the fact remains communications agencies do need to sort their act out. They hold the key to positive change. Even if the amount invested in promoting chocolate bars over the last five years had instead been put into promoting the organisations on the previous page, what impact would this have had? How would the world be different? Would it now be a better place to live?

But top grade communications cost money and when you’re trying to do the right thing money is often the one thing in short supply – lots of ideas, energy, enthusiasm and loose change. The problem is ethical businesses and campaigning organisations won’t generate the income needed to regularly buy top grade communications until they are effectively promoted using those communications.

Indeed many have been so poorly served by communications agencies in the past that they see no value in spending more of their hard fund-raised budgets on another ineffective website revamp and further wind-bag strategic consultancy than they have to. That’s why a lot of them try and do it themselves – at least then they have control over the process.

So when are communications agencies going to take responsibility? When are they going to give good causes quality communications at a price they can afford? I don’t mean pro-bono work by junior designers for PR value, or high profile one off’s ‘the next one’ll cost ya’, I mean accountable, seriously considered, communications to make a difference, done by the most talented and experienced players working in the agency. One off pro bonos’ are not sustainable -a consistently fair price for quality work is.

We don’t claim that Ethical Media has all the answers, we’re microscopic compared to the big guys and we’re still learning, but we understand the importance of this issue and we were set up to address it. Our hope is that other communications agencies will see that there is a market for the work we do and that smaller agencies can make a decent living and make a positive contribution.

The key to our success is that we employ people who are good at what they do not just because they’ve been trained to be but because they genuinely care about the work of the clients. This ‘authenticity’ has a huge bearing on the quality of the creative process meaning we can afford to give clients more for their money. And from our experience, when timescales and budgets are tight, the only way you’re going to flourish in this market is if you put creatives in front of clients who share their values. Authenticity works – and what’s more it’s THRILLING!