Why ‘Moral Bankruptcy’?
Something they trained us with at Wieden + Kennedy. Like a thought exercise.
I have no personal interest, agenda or passion for selling smoking, foie gras, Russian tourism, asphyxiation devices etc. I would not want to work for these accounts for real.
But, if a genie gave you a choice between
(A) ending world hunger + win a million dollars, or
(B) rob an orphanage,
while any sane person would pick (A), if a Creative could, without lying, logically make you consider (B)... they’d have to be a pretty good Creative, right?
As it was explained to me at W+K, “selling Nike trainers is easier” than the things they were asking us to mock sell during ‘Moral Bankruptcy’ week, because Nike makes great trainers and people want them anyway. But they made us practice with selling reprehensible things like foie gras and cigarettes because “the point is to show your ability to think”.
And on a very different point for the same argument, I’ll leave you with something Larry David said:
I have no personal interest, agenda or passion for selling smoking, foie gras, Russian tourism, asphyxiation devices etc. I would not want to work for these accounts for real.
But, if a genie gave you a choice between
(A) ending world hunger + win a million dollars, or
(B) rob an orphanage,
while any sane person would pick (A), if a Creative could, without lying, logically make you consider (B)... they’d have to be a pretty good Creative, right?
As it was explained to me at W+K, “selling Nike trainers is easier” than the things they were asking us to mock sell during ‘Moral Bankruptcy’ week, because Nike makes great trainers and people want them anyway. But they made us practice with selling reprehensible things like foie gras and cigarettes because “the point is to show your ability to think”.
And on a very different point for the same argument, I’ll leave you with something Larry David said: