“Lies They Tell Our Children”

That’s the headline from an advertorial run by Exxon in 1984, sowing seeds of doubt about climate science.

ExxonMobil [as they now are] have recently been accused of a “decades long campaign of deception” about the effectiveness of plastic recycling in a lawsuit filed by the state of California.

It’s not only Exxon, of course - they just happen to be the company that caught my eye this week. I could’ve talked about tobacco companies, or food companies, or social media companies, or AI companies, or etc etc.

There is a long history of big companies focusing only on the short-term [profit], and ignoring the long-term consequences of those decisions - even when they knew what those effects would be. These range from ignoring the health impacts of adding lead to fuel, to denying the connection between social media and teenage mental health.

I realise this is pretty dark, but we need to do a better job of understanding - and learning from - our past mistakes. We can’t do that by burying our head in the sand.

We need to look at what has happened before - and then look in the mirror.

If you don’t know these stories - particularly if you work in marketing - I have a workshop that covers some of the bigger stories [scandals?], and also has some suggestions on how we might respond differently. Get in touch if you’re interested.