I had a moment of enlightenment when I read this sentence on a blog by LSE:

“Media mediates.”

It mediates our relationship with friends, peers, colleagues, influencers.

With politics, products, services, opinions, and when there are clashing opinions, media mediates us that jaw dropping intolerance yet to be restored for diversity.

Media mediates everything.

As a media buyer and comms consultant and it’s hard for me to express my dilemma here. I, in fact, love this world that enables brands to speak to their community or prospects, explaining how they’re different, how they’re trying hard to meet needs, how they make mistakes but they’re running the extra mile to fix it. As long as messages are authentic, I believe it’s a good thing to have supply speak to demand. And for demand, to respond back.

The problem starts, swirls and tangles with “being authentic”.

I’m aware of the manipulative nature of marketing. It´s a seduction game that´s such an integrated part of our lives right now.

However every game has got to evolve around certain ground rules that cannot be broken. That´s why I don’t accept that lines can be that thin when it comes to promoting companies´ promises (or spreading misinformation). Simply put, brand communications shouldn´t be false or misleading. We should no longer see ads promoting freemium models in deceptive ways (Now FREE?), with subscription fee notes hidden in fine print and with overly complex cancellations procedures (I´ve worked for projects like these earlier on in my career 😞).

Spreading misinformation should have legal consequences.

​On a more “naive level”: ​Kellogg’s shouldn’t imply a slimmer body when the cereal contains at least more than 10% of sugar, H&M shouldn’t oversell their sustainability efforts while the business is entirely built on fast-fashion (Although I´m hopeful to see trends change here) and I’m wondering if any of you really got whiter teeth, a younger look, got complemented for your shiny hair thanks to a specific product usage. Perhaps I suck at selecting the right shampoo or toothpaste, but as someone who’s continuously involved in the advertising world, I do believe lines are often being crossed especially in DTC messages.

My worry for digital marketing and crossing lines is that younger and older generations might not even be aware that advertising is mediated to them via unboxing videos, influencers boomeranging a new skincare product or new merch worn by an attractive body. Which is where media literacy walks on stage.

Here´s how EAVI.EU puts it:

“The more media literate a society becomes, the less likely it is that individuals and groups will be seduced by treachery and mediocrity. In the global skills race it remains, as ever was, that knowledge — not simply information — is the source of power …. Therefore, citizens must be equipped with the skills to utilize and benefit from media, and to do this Europeans need to acquire new competences beyond that of traditional literacy.”

To give a more personal example: the relationship my daughter will have with digital media scares me. I´m not only worried about the amount of time she might spend consuming digital media, but how her thoughts, her perceptions will be shaped by it. I’d like my daughter to be able to differ misleading advertising (or any other propaganda) from authentic communications and stay skeptical and critical about promises made by companies and institutions. I would love it if she didn’t fall for a brand just because an influencer she feels close to, (to the level that she might think she knows him/her personally) is endorsing it while the product is far from sustainable, far from quality, far from apt for her age etc. AND overpriced — ironically so to some level in order to compensate high marketing costs.

I believe increasing levels of media literacy will impose a whole new world of self-reflection and authenticity for brands. So it´s really crucial for companies to onboard this mindset and build on this muscle going forward.