Ethics and marketing go hand in hand

Today i was treveling through humble but jam packed BEST bus, these advertisement plackards pasted on the upper side of the windows caught my attention inadvertently. There is nothing new in their format , but this time they are carrying message which was subtle but important. One message reads Please check carefully beneath your seat before seating and carrying a toll-free no.. The important thing to note is this message is from a mobile phone company and the othee one from a FMCG company.

Welcome to era of ethical marketing!!

This trend is not new but is being used extensively these days by marketers. Whether it is Save tiger campaign of Aircel or Save trees use mobile phone campaign of Idea, everyone wants to associate itself with a social cause or other. Few days back Idea came for earth hour campaign when it appealed to turn off lights for an hour to cut the Carbon emmission of the World , then came its campaign that was related to the Public security where they talked about donating all the money of usage to a charity for the victims of 26/11 attack.
The same thing was tried by Times of India when they came with Lead India campaign and talked about the corrupt political structure of the country. HT never left back and came with a campaign of ethical reporting.
Way back in 2003 Surf excel brought about a new by saying

"Do bucket Pani Ab Rojana hai Bachana". & then many companies started making ads with social messages. Idea with "What an Idea sirji " campaign gve it a new direction.

Every brand has started to make its way to the minds of customers by portraying themselves as their well wisher, some one who cares for them in true sense. HT came up with NO TV DAY in mumbai to give human relationship more importance & Earth Day doesn't need any introduction

Hoping to see a lot more in coming years!!