Sydney copywriter asks: What’s the limit on standing by your morals in advertising?

By Jordan Alexander Davies

I’m not super prone to taking a stance, and my intention is not to push an opinion. I’m simply looking to guage the temperature on a hypothetical situation I’ve been mulling over the last couple days.

There was an article in Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. The headline read: Fat Chance of Being Healthy: Young Aussies only have themselves to blame. It was followed by an infographic featuring a bunch of statistics, which presumedly were intended to reinforce the headline. Here’s a sample:

37% of 16- to 24-year olds consume alcohol at levels posing a lifetime risk to health.

11% of 12- to 17-year-olds used illict drugs in the past 12 months.

37% of males and 21% of females aged 16 to 24 are overweight or obese.

16.8% of secondary school students in Australia are attracted to people of the same sex as them or both sexes.

So here, in 2017, we have a publication that – for all intents and purposes – is suggesting same sex attraction and bisexuality is an unhealthy lifestyle choice that negatively affects the health of our youth. A suggestion that I’m really not stoked about because I personally do not believe that a boy liking another boy (or any of the other non-heterosexual combinations) is A) a choice, and B) going to give him a “fat chance of being healthy”.

Pretty irritated about the article and the publication in general, I began to wonder what I would do if I rolled into the office and my ECD said, “mate, we’ve got a new client – you’re going to be working on The Daily Telegraph”?

Which brings me to my hypothetical situation, and a question for the greater advertising community: could I refuse to work on a client for moral reasons?

Let me establish the parametres of this question: I believe everyone’s entitled to their opinion. This isn’t about refusing to work with/for someone just because their opinion is different to mine. This is about working for a company that is actively and publicly pushing an agenda which I have a massive moral objection to. Not totally dissimilar to Don’s contention with Lucky Strike.

With that in mind, I ask again: is it a reasonable request for a creative to ask that they not work on a client they have such a strong objection to?

Ignore the other obvious question of, “should I refuse to work on this client?” That lends itself to a whole spectrum of variables, which doesn’t quite benefit this discussion.

What if I put it to you this way: would it be okay for a homophobic art director to refuse to work on a newspaper which actively and publicly celebrated same-sex relationships?

Note, I said homophobic and not Christian because there’s a difference between a moral opposition, and a religious one.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not hugely prone to taking a stance. I’ve worked on heaps of clients that have challenged my morality. I guess the reason I feel differently about this is because it feels like there’s a difference between selling a product like a car or credit card, and growing the circulation of a newspaper which spreads an opinion to which I am vehemently opposed.

Or, does that distinction actually destroy the foundation of this argument?

Perhaps the bigger question is, “where would you draw the line at working for a client in terms of challenging your morality?” And a step further, “where do we end personally, and begin professionally?”

A final caveat in case it wasn’t clear: I’m writing this from the understanding that homosexuality is something way deeper than a “lifestyle choice”, as much as there are probably a bunch of confused teens out there who, perhaps looking to improve their health, wish it were.