Two of my favorite things: Advertising and Politics

In honor of this historic week (Prop 8 was overturned in California for those living under a rock) and a major fail on the part of Minnesota in the past weeks, I get to write about two things that rile me up beyond measure: advertising and politics.

First a little background: Corporate donors helped fund a documentary about Hillary Clinton in 2008 - a very critical documentary. This raised some red flags in campaign finance circles, so Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which was decided in 2010 and basically undid years of campaign finance reform. The end ruling stated that limiting corporate donations limited corporate First Amendment Rights because of weird rules stating that in certain circumstances the corporation is to be treated as a person - its speech being represented through dollars. I know this is confusing, but stay with me. So, in the end, the Supreme Court essentially authorized unlimited corporate sponsorship of political campaigns (i.e.: Obama '12 brought to you by Pepsi).

So all of this was announced in January, and the general consensus was that any smart corporation wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole. Although political leanings of some corporations are evident in their brand personalities, its a huge risk to state them concretely and thereby potentially alienate half of your consumer base. I remember discussing this with my brother at the time (another political nerd) and we weren't at all troubled by the implications of the ruling, because who wants to clean up that PR mess? Enter Target.

A few weeks ago it came to light that local Minneapolis mega-corp Target Corp. had donated a huge amount of money ($150K to be exact) and free branding consultation to Minnesota Forward, a PAC that supports MN Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Not a huge issue so far. Unfortunately for Target, Emmer very publically opposes gay rights, something Target has worked very hard to support in its corporation and throughout the Twin Cities community. Now we have a problem. Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel immediately responded saying that Emmer's policies support the business community. Translation: His tax cuts will help our bottom line and fatten my paycheck. Funny how liberal consumers and employees didn't see that as sufficient justification. Now Target is backtracking saying that it is sorry for offending anyone and that they support both parties' candidates whose policies will support growth in business. Nice recovery.

To say that Minnesota's Gubernatorial race is heated would be an understatement. In my mind, it's no coincidence that other corporations headquartered in Minnesota like Best Buy and 3M haven't entered the fray by choosing a side. This seems to me a glaring example of not thinking through the consequences of an action before taking it. Newsflash: What you do and where you invest money as a corporation does matter. Your consumers think so, the media thinks so, and it will become public. Think. It. Through.

At the end of the day it comes back to my other favorite topic: transparency. My general rule is that if you wouldn't want to defend this to any or all of your consumers - if you don't have a good reason that will nip a PR nightmare in the bud - maybe it's a bad idea.