Take a moment to ponder how problematic this statement is when it’s from the mouth of Jane Wakely, Mars’ CMO of 20 years: “The biggest challenges we face as marketers are the ones society faces and we need to step into society’s biggest challenges.”
The issue is that it comes within the same month that Mars has been accused of using child labour within their supply chain for their eponymous chocolate bar.
Supply chain issues are rife within the chocolate industry; that’s something we all know and recognise and if you’re purchasing mainstream brand chocolate it is, in all likelihood, damaging someone’s livelihood somewhere down the line. Indeed, in the same investigation into Mars’ supply chain, six other major chocolate companies including Nestlé (of course) and Hershey have been found to be using the same suppliers.
Sadly I cannot fix the chocolate industry, but I can smell marketing bullshit from a mile off – and on this occasion, Jane Wakely’s comments on brand purpose may, from afar, look like chocolate, but it’s when you get a little closer and pick up that familiar foul odour that you realise what you’re looking at is in fact a steaming turd.
A false brand purpose erodes trust
This is the issue with brand purpose. I have no doubts that Jane Wakely and indeed the whole of Mars’ marketing department stand for equity, diversity, and progressive values. Contrary to the popular belief that the average advertiser or marketeer is a sociopathic lying monster, marketing is dominated by progressives. As a discipline it attracts young people, the vast majority of whom are left-leaning, making in-house departments and external agencies by and large more conscious of social impact and keen to portray their brands as positive forces on the world.
But there’s a reason that, once again, in 2021 an Ipsos MORI poll put marketeers as the least trusted profession in the world below bastards (landlords), big bastards (estate agents) and absolute bastards (politicians). And that reason is that what we say is so often completely devoid of truth when you to hang it up next to a business’ strategy – especially a lean, mean chocolate making machine like Mars.
I don’t want to point the finger at Jane. Her interview in The Drum goes on to point out the initiatives that Mars are undertaking. From campaign level work such as the Maltesers and #themassiveovershare campaign, prompting mothers to discuss mental health more openly, to genuine top level initiatives such as the launch of Lovebug, an insect-based cat food, making them (to my knowledge) the first multinational corporation to launch a pet food that goes some way to curbing the massive amount of environmental damage that cats cause based on their meat-heavy diets.
But the issue is that, sat within the top paragraph of Mars’ very own “About” page on their corporate website, they point out the goal of “Working to improve the wellbeing for families around the world.”
Some brands make a mockery of themselves by climbing the brand purpose ladder to ridiculous degrees. Some brands keep climbing then jump into an ocean of bullshit. Mars has climbed, dived, and in doing so has also jumped the bullshit shark too.
Here’s a quick suggestion for Mars on how they can start improving the wellbeing of families around the world, as they profess to: don’t use kids to farm your cocoa beans.
