I know it's bad to call myself a mercenary when all I do is sell my skills for cash, but what about when I sell my skills to company I disagree with?
I've heard many copywriters talk about not applying for jobs or turning down work in certain industries, from British American Tobacco and off-shore fintech. I get this, these industries are highly unethical and kill, but what about copywriters to work for big pharma or the automotive industry?
OK, so cars aren't as unhealthy as fags, but they do pump out fumes and driven carelessly. And sure, big pharma cures illness, but it's hardly a bastion of altruism.
The truth is we all need to get paid. As much as I do it for love, I need to pay the bills. So if there was a dip in the freelance market, would I be tempted by a job at Cambridge Analytica, I hope not.
It's not just these sorts of dilemmas that face your average copywriter, it's also the nature of what we do.
We sell crap to people who don't want it.
We polish turds.
We use tactics to make something seem more alluring.
We create desire for something that plunges you into debt.
We disguise its short-comings.
We overt gaze from what's not exactly cricket.
We sell consumerism in a world burgeoned by climate change.
I'm not going to lie, making all this noise to sell unnessecery stuff to suggestable people doesn't sit right with me. But I enjoy doing it, I like the psychology and the experimentation. I enjoy crafting copy and playing with words.
I like telling stories and spreading messages. I like creatively solving a problem.
In the end, someone buying a plastic dustpan and brush isn't as bad as spreading racism or influencing a public vote.
And I have the luxury of explaining it as digital. But this to comes at an environmental cost and the digital bit is normally attached to an industrial bit, which really is unethical and unclean.
The way I reconcile it is by trying my darnedest to make the businesses I work for think and act more ethically. In my only little way, I'm making incremental changes. Either by making the office paperless or by getting them to treat the customer fairer.
The truth is, words are powerful and we have to be careful how we use them. So as copywriters, we should weave ethics into everything we do.
