The Next Generation Of Advertisers Sees Purpose As A Must. Professors Are Taking Notice.
Illustration by Will Maynard
Given the rise in conversations about issues like climate change, social injustice and equity, companies are not just looking at shifting their operations — they’re redeploying marketing dollars to address and assert themselves on the cultural conversations of the era.
As of 2020, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives were enacted at 88% of publicly traded companies, 79% of venture and private equity-backed companies and 67% of privately-owned companies, found Navex Global. (Think Unilever’s commitment this year to stop digitally altering models’ skin tones or body shapes in its advertising, or the over 200 companies who have signed Amazon’s Climate Pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.)
“The last three or four years is when it's hit the mainstream,” says Conspiracy of Love Managing Director Helen Trickey. “Brands across the board — every brand you can think of, from property companies all the way through to toothpaste brands — are thinking about the why? Why do we exist? What are we adding to society beyond our products?”
Brand purpose and responsibility are more important now than ever — for the societal good, yes, but also to connect with young consumers whose views are increasingly progressive. For instance, 83% of younger consumers want companies to reflect their personal values, and 76% want CEOs to take a stand on issues important to them, says 5WPR’s Consumer Culture report. And with Gen Z’s estimated spending power sitting at $150 billion and Millennials’ at an estimated $1.4 trillion, companies can’t afford to not appeal to them.
The next generation of consumers and marketers see purpose as a must, not an additive. Therefore, advertising and marketing instructors are increasingly focused on brand purpose, and some colleges and universities specifically incorporate it via programs like the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the University of Oregon’s Master’s Degree in Advertising and Brand Responsibility.
Newer advertising students show an inherent interest in talking about issues like diversity, sustainability and accessibility. But professors note that it’s essential they learn to think about advertising within the context of purpose to create meaningful work and change consumers demand.
"Champions Of Change Through The Vehicle Of Industry"
When teaching, VCU Brandcenter Experience Design Professor Andrew LeVasseur tries to reframe the narrative so his students don’t see themselves simply as advertisers, but as “champions of change through the vehicle of industry,” he says. “Let’s not just sell more cereal. Let’s see if we can make more cereal that is socially conscientious, better for the planet and more equitable.”
Teaching experience design is no longer relegated to classes simply focused on branding or craft. LeVasseur emphasizes issues like accessibility and artificial intelligence ethics to encourage students to use their platforms to advocate for a better societal good. Championing progress will also create better customer relationships. “A company that people like, whose values they reflect, who they feel as being a good corporate citizen, tends to be one that they come back to,” says LeVasseur, “so it's self-perpetuating in that respect.”
While brand purpose is not new (Unilever and Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty is now old enough to vote, for example) and the desire to feel good about your day job is somewhat universal, there's been a shift from desire to demand.
It's no longer a “nice to have'' that a company is a good corporate citizen or that your employees are satisfied at the end of their days. It’s now a non-starter for emerging talent and a growing consumer basis that social good be baked in. 64% of millennials will turn down a job if the group doesn’t have robust CSR principles. Conversely, 83% would stick with a company that helps them address environmental and social issues, says the Cone Communications Millennial Employee Study.
Empathy, Courage, Honesty And Optimism
Advertising students feel compelled to take action and do purpose-driven work, too, says Deb Morrison, Associate Dean of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications’ advertising program. She teaches classes on brand responsibility and green strategy, and in the university’s Master of Advertising and Brand Responsibility program. As conversations about environmentalism have become more widespread, Morrison has seen a substantial uptick in applications to the master’s program. Since its first cohort four years ago, applications for the program have tripled (from 20 to 60), coming from many states in the U.S. and nations abroad. (And, beyond the classroom, Trickey says there’s been an increase in young advertising professionals committed to making a positive impact.)
Like LeVasseur, Morrison considers it part of her job to ensure that students aren’t merely showing up at their future jobs to create ads but that they are holding their companies accountable.
“Consumerism and capitalism are, broadly speaking, not that good for the societal good in terms of sustainability or equity,” she says. She wants her students to help rectify this by advocating that groups not only have a sense of purpose, but also take action: “Can you change your DNA? Are there things that you can do to become more responsible? Are there simple to very complex systems that you can change?”
Morrison emphasizes standard skills like writing, design and strategy in her classes, but she also underscores the importance of:
Empathy: Understanding audiences and what they need as consumers and people.
Courage: Advertisers standing up and asking the hard questions.
Honesty: Being truthful about the good and bad sides of the industry.
Optimism: Believe that you can make an impact via advertising.
Morrison tells students they will likely encounter moments in their careers when leaders or circumstances call their values into question. Hence, she guides them through scenarios for advocating for their beliefs in business situations. “That's what I want them to take away — that they will be put in situations where people will say, ‘Oh, cool, does the client want more environmental stuff?,’” she says. “And one of our obligations is to say, ‘Whether they want more environmental stuff or not, it is our obligation as citizens and humans to do this.’”
Advocacy Over Washing The Problem Away
Another important part of teaching brand purpose and responsibility is to make sure students can differentiate between genuine advocacy and lip service, says VCU Brandcenter Copywriting Professor Holly Hessler. Consumers can detect BS, and an always-online world means corporations and brands are being held to higher levels of accountability.
Hessler encourages students to hold companies responsible for forging genuine relationships with the communities they wish to impact—not throwing money at issues and ending up in territories like greenwashing or rainbow-washing. “I never look at it as like, ‘This is the problem that every single brand needs to go out there and solve,’” she says. “It's more about what problem are you [as a brand] equipped to help with? What problem are you equipped to speak on?”
To that point, Hessler emphasizes the importance of students relying on their lived experiences to inform the way they approach their work and understanding of brand purpose. “Their perspective is the thing that I cannot teach them,” she says. “How they see the world, how they experience culture, how they look at art, how they read books, how they listen to music — that is their unique perspective. And they need to bring that into the work that they do at all times.”
Looking Forward
Morrison says she’s seen an increase in academic conversation about the intersection of advertising and purpose in the past few years, but feels that not nearly enough institutions are dedicating the right degree of attention to it. Instead, she hopes purpose and responsibility will become a thread running through all advertising and marketing curricula — not just a one-off class or focus found in specific programs.
Morrison also hopes the same for the advertising industry at-large. “It's old, tired thinking,” she says of groups not embracing purpose. “I'm afraid what it means is that the industry continues to suffer by pumping out people doing the same old things.”
Simply put, forgoing a dedicated commitment to purpose could mean companies become less attractive to a young workforce: Students are increasingly concerned with working for a company that aligns with their values and is invested in purpose, rather than landing a job at a big-name agency, says Morrison. (The Deloitte survey backs this up — 49% of surveyed Gen Zs said their career choices were dictated by personal ethics.)
“I see them saying, ‘If they're not doing what I want to do, I'm gone,’” she says. “Partly because the last several years have been a nightmare. There are so many bigger things to be concerned about.”
