Dear advertiser,
We understand that your work is laborious and challenging. You face deadlines, and client visions, and yearn for a successful career. Yet, there are times when you wish to be an artist and reap the fruits of your creativity. You crave recognition, appreciation, and accolades. You grind every part of your imagination and incorporate it into every campaign that comes our way, striving to make it as creative and aesthetically pleasing as possible, even if it moves us to tears.
However, please don't forget that your story can affect the victims featured in your ads, often forgetting that they will be exposed to the campaign or be impacted by the attitudes of those who act upon the campaign's prompts. With a "successful" campaign, you can irreversibly wound a soul.
No one likes to be pitied, just as you wouldn't like to be pitied in your ardently appreciated workplace. When you organize or create a humanitarian campaign, think of yourself first! How would you like to be represented?
When you hastily write at the end of your message "Donate Now! Save a Life Now!" remember that not everything is about money! Leave room for people to find out more genuine information, so that they may consider other forms of concrete and substantial assistance.
We know that the public craves sensationalism, but we also know that the public desires more truth in humanitarian campaigns. An audience that seeks to do good can be cultivated to truly contribute to lasting change, not just to "tick off" a good deed in their own personal goals, one that doesn't drastically improve the situation.
Your profession is not solely about image and text. It is much more than that. It is a source of inspiration for many. Be aware of your mission and fulfill it with a sense of responsibility! Do not expose all the pain in the world in a few seconds. Do it gradually! Make it effortless for us to understand the pain in all its complexity, to acknowledge it, and mobilize ourselves to bring comfort to the "vulnerable", with care and respect for them!
Do not terrorize us! Do not dramatize! Do not lie! Do not use someone else's image in the story you tell, just because it better conveys the "necessary" emotion! Do not reveal details from someone's private life if he or she has not given consent! Do not treat people like objects!
Just as you wish to be understood, heard, and appreciated, so does the victim wish to be understood, heard, and appreciated as a real, complex person, with the possibility of fulfilling meaningful work.
Their survival as individuals is no less important than your survival as a human being. Their dignity is no less important than your dignity. And your worth as a person depends on the value you recognize in those whom you feature in your campaigns.
Let their voices truly be heard through your work!
Thank you!
*This text (original in Romanian) created for my B.A. thesis in Communication and Public Relations has been translated using deepai.org