Articles Directory

David Boyle is  an authenticist and financial philosopher, he is the author of Authenticity, brands, fakes, spin and the lust for real life, Alastair Sawday's brilliant "Little Book of Money' and  "Funny Money".   In this article David explores the wider shift in society and consumers seeking the authentic in all things from financial services to food.

Once again Seb - Client Relations Director at Ethical Media challenges our ideas about what constitutes good communications - especially for authentic businesses and charities and NGOs.

Seb Ross - Client Relations Director at ethical communications design supremos - Ethical Media gets passionate and challenging about the role and responsibilities of communications agencies.

Communication is pivotal to life. Perhaps communication could even form part of a definition of life, because things that do not communicate do not live either.

In our "developed" society the methods, tools and techniques of communication have developed too. We now have an astonishing array of specialised communication, which support our way of life.

Sadly the biggest users of communication are also often the biggest abusers of communication. Governments and big business have sponsored the development of communications thinking through the employment of advertising, PR and other communications agencies. These agencies have developed techniques for helping their paymasters conceal or invert the unacceptable to persuade us the buying and voting public to accept and even support things that poison us and disempower us.

Speech by Mark Barden of Barden & Jelly:

Advertising and the transition to sustainable capitalism

Mark has written and delivered a sublime invitation to the global advertising industry. Mark is inviting advertising agencies to find a new sense of relevance for their creativity in helping their clients to work for sustainability. It is a quite brilliant balance of good business sense with idealism. It was originally written and delivered as a speech to an advertising industry conference in San Francisco. Mike described the response he got as “overwhelming”, he will be writing more about that response in the next issue.

In answering this question John breaks down the barriers between the corporate and the personal to explain the origins of trust and how you cannot fake it.

If we accept the notion that all markets are conversations, then we must also accept that all markets are communication; after all, what is a conversation without communication? Yet in this ‘Communication Age’, isn’t it amazing how often it breaks down? Points are missed. People are misunderstood. Expectations are dashed. Corporate myths survive unchallenged for years. What is it that’s so difficult about communicating?

Choosing the right partner to help to implement an important project is always difficult because it is the single most important step in achieving the desired outcome. Neil has been on both sides of the fence and learnt a few truths along the way.

For many years marketers were in control and advertised their products and services in order to sell as much as possible of what they produced. However, there has been a seismic shift in recent years and it is now the consumer that calls the shots.