I know what you are thinking, “Since when are advertisers known for honesty?” Well my answer is, in the age of continously increasing cynicism towards advertisements, isnt it about time that someone stands up and do something about it and earn some much required honesty points. Is there any better way to differentiate?

McCann Eriksson., one of the biggest ad agency networks in the world, had this slogan – “Truth well told”. In my mind, that should be what advertising is all about. You take an average truth and turn it into a well shot, well cratfted truth.

But saying “It prevents wrinkle upto 92% more” in the headline and somewhere, in an invisible corner of the communication it is written “Based on the laboratory test on 54 women” does not measure up as truth. Saying “Our product is the Car of the year” and then mentioning its based on the ranking done by an anonymous magazine, does not measure up as truth. Its manipulation of truth also known as half-lie.

 And its about time advertisers understand audience is smart enough to know these differences

Every company mission statement has the word transperency and trustworthy written all over it. But as a customer when we think about it, no company just springs in our mind as a company that speaks 100% truth 100% of the time.

And thats a big opportunity.

Organizations that can benefit from this idea

Big advertisers and ad agencies, wake up! If you understand the power you will get from the positioning of “Honest Advertisers” in an era of cynicism, than start work on it immediately.