The Ethical Frames Blog

As we weather the COVID-19 pandemic and try to figure out ways to work from home, we also need to face the idea that attitudes are changing.  The way we approach our brand’s strategy may have to change. It might not be permanent, but it is at least true for the short and medium term. It makes me…

Our country (the USA) is so divided by politics that it even affects views of the COVID-19 epidemic. Ipsos ran an online poll for Reuters on March 2 &3 about attitudes towards the coronavirus outbreak and found that four in ten Democrats think the coronavirus poses an imminent threat but only…

Last year I wrote about the Clif Bar ad that talked about how the disgust response is powerful in advertising but doesn’t work well for food. Well, the folks on the Burger King account must not have read my post or at least they didn’t believe it. Or perhaps they didn’t have enough organizational…

Everyone has an opinion about the Super Bowl commercials. But that’s from their own viewpoint.  Because our media has become polarized, this show may be the only place to see commercials targeted at a very diverse audience.  Here’s my analysis of how the different groups might perceive some of the…

For those of you who haven’t been following the news on the US Census, it is in difficult situation as it prepares to conduct their decennial census this year.  The Trump administration created part of that pressure in their attempt to add a question about citizenship to the shorter questionnaire. …

In December, Hallmark waffled on their decision whether to accept an ad featuring a same sex couple wedding.  At first, they said they wouldn’t accept it because it was controversial, then they changed their minds and “re-established” a partnership with Zola, the advertiser who created the spots.

A lot of people have tips about how to survive the holidays when you have major disagreements. That’s important in this era of culture wars, but not good enough, that means your relationship is frozen. Instead, I want to focus on how to thrive and grow in a relationship with someone you care about…

Today, in honor of the US observance of Thanksgiving next week, I am going to talk about how to improve the holidays by applying the latest social science theories to personal interactions. (These are the same theories that are behind my blog posts on marketing, just so you don’t think I am totally…

Last week at the WARC networking event, Tom Morton (Chief Strategy Officer at R/GA) brought up the topic of ethics as it relates to implementing behavioral science in advertising.  … One of his slides said: “The building blocks of digital design both incredibly powerful and morally ambivalent.”  In…