It is easy to claim that our efforts are honest, however it takes discipline, rigour, and at times internal conflict to ensure honesty in marketing. We ask ourselves the following questions during campaign strategy and execution:

Are we clearly communicating our product or service’s value without exaggerating or misleading our key audiences?

Are we using language that honestly communicates the features and benefits of our products and services?

Are we accurately quoting our customers, partners, and team when we share reviews or testimonials?

Is our use of data and examples honest and accurate when promoting our features, benefits, or the impact of our products and services?

Is there internal pressure to communicate dishonest information within your marketing and communications coming from team members or the leadership of your company or organisation? If so we will push back or disengage from the project.

Exaggerating impact by inflating numbers, cherry-picking data, or focusing on stories that aren’t representative of overall outcomes;

Communicating false promises or making unrealistic claims about expected results;

Sharing stories or creating impact initiatives that aren’t rooted in an authentic mission or intention for good–but purely for the marketing benefits;

Using a social impact initiative to distract from negative social or environmental problems caused by their core processes, products, or services.

We pledge that our campaigns:

Are fully honest and transparent about the social and environmental impacts of a client’s work.

Review marketing and communications strategies and tactics to ensure that they are not engaging in impact-washing.

The Ethical Butcher is committed to ensuring the accuracy and ethics of the content we promote through digital advertising.

Aside from considering the accuracy and honesty of the content, we must also consider the ethics of the targeting approach. Digital advertising brings its own unique set of ethical issues related to data privacy. Facebook, Google, and many other digital media companies have developed sophisticated tracking technologies in order to understand, profile, track, and target users online so that their paying advertisers can reach their exact target audience via their digital advertising products and services. This kind of granular targeting often comes at the cost of individual users’ privacy. As consumer attitudes and technologies change, the ethical considerations that surround digital advertising are rapidly evolving. It is highly likely that the line of what is both legal and ethically acceptable will shift many times over the short and long term.

Our Approach to Ethical Advertising Includes the following considerations:

We will not make untrue claims about a product or services or misrepresent what is being offered.

Issues with Advertorial Advertising: It is important that an online user can tell what is paid advertising vs what is editorial content. Advertorial content is content that looks like unbiased editorial/earned media but is actually paid advertising. This type of content can take place on written articles, social media posts, written reviews, or videos. Influencer marketing often relies on the process of well connected social influencers promoting products or services to their audiences, often through content that would be considered advertorial if the influencer is not transparent that the content is a paid promotion. While advertorial content may be seen by some as an ethical grey area, it is increasingly becoming clear that misleading users into believing that a brand mention is based on editorial merit alone, when in fact the placement was paid for by the brand is an unethical marketing tactic by both the publisher and brand buying the paid content.

Pop ups, pop unders and modal windows – There are a wide variety of types of pop-up style promotions that websites can deploy. Pop ups or pop unders (that create new tabs or windows behind the main browser window, are now widely considered unethical marketing tactics. They often offer misleading statistics about how many people actually see their content and few users actually engage with this type of content. The modal window is a term for using similar techniques within your own website where the pop up is part of your own web page. Modal windows are often used for contact forms, email signups and other strategies. When properly implemented modal windows can be helpful for the user and very effective for marketing, however when overused they can become annoying and can degrade the user’s experience of your website.

Here are a few best practices for modal window use: 

Use them in ways that offer clear value.

Limit how often they are used, allow people to opt out of modal windows.

Make it easy to close them.

If a user closes a modal window save that info so that they don’t see them over and over again.

If a user completes a modal window for an opt in, then you don’t need to show that user the window again.

We expect for ethical marketing practices to continue to evolve along with the technologies marketers use to discover, reach, and engage audiences. The line that separates ethical from unethical marketing practices can shift rapidly as major online platforms such as Google, Facebook, and other search and social applications roll out updates and new options for data-driven targeting. We will continue to monitor the state of the field across different marketing channels and tactics and update our practices accordingly.

Questions and Feedback

We always strive to do the right thing for our clients and adhering to these ethical practices is part of that work. If you have questions or feedback to share that will help us do better, we encourage you to reach out and let us know. Please contact us using our website contact form below for any of the following:

- To request more information

- To provide feedback

- To access, edit, or delete personal information we may have about you

- To register a complaint