The problem with pledge porn
The problem with pledge porn
While it may give us that warm fuzzy feeling, sharing what you intend to do isn't as valuable as sharing what you've actually done.
At the deliberately designed break in the story, an ad came on, blaring in what amounted to an affront on my ears.
Groan.
I stopped what I was doing to turn down the volume and waited a few moments to turn it back up again, a process I find extraordinarily frustrating.
Damn advertisers.
The ad showed a beach. People started to clean it.
Corona made this ad to tell me they plan to clean 100 beaches by 2025.
Sigh. Another piece of pledge porn.
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The problem with pledge porn
Learning a company has committed to a cause perks your ears. Do I care about this cause? Well, of course, I do. Causes are good.
You see the commitment. NetZero by 2030? Removing plastic from beaches? Changing the world? Ugh, that feels so good.
And you can join in! Hell yes! Let me get my hashtag out and make a social media post to extend this post-coital vibe with the likes I'm sure to get for promoting something so good.
Congratulations, you’ve indulged in some pledge porn. I can't blame you; companies love to put this smut in front of you because it's a win, win, (win), win for them:
You feel positively about the brand.
You're primed to endorse it publicly.
(Bonus: You might even choose that brand over another next time you have the opportunity).
And they never have to do anything else.
Pledging to do something isn't the same as doing something, just like watching porn isn't the same as having sex, and goodness knows, it's nothing like having a real relationship.
These companies and their advertisers bank on the reality that you don't have time in your day to check up on them, so their campaign never has to deliver anything of substance for us to get off.
Alas, many of us have wised up to the empty calories of pledges and want to know that companies made progress on — or dare I say achieved — what they promised to do.
In the case of Corona, I don't want to know how many beaches you say you're going to clean someday in the future. I want to know how many you've already cleaned.
Wait, but they do tell you what they’ve accomplished so far.
Here's what's wild: A light spin on the ol' Google machine turned up a landing page for this beach cleaning effort. It says they’re on a mission to clean 100 beaches and remove 1 million pounds of plastic from their business and beaches by 2025. In tiny text, it says that they've cleaned 47 beaches and removed 735,613.61 pounds of plastic. They add, “That’s nearly 3x the weight of the Statue of Liberty!”
That description they tacked on at the end reveals why a company that can communicate something real continues to communicate something imaginary: just like porn, bigger must be better.
735,613.61 isn’t as large or as clear as 1 million. And since the ad was created in 2023, that number was likely even smaller. 1 million is so much cooler. It makes us look so much better.
Right? Wrong.
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If you’re going to do porn, then give me the good stuff.
Before we get to the tough job of delivering the type of value these campaigns promise to deliver, let's start with a fundamental issue with the campaign itself.
Most of these pledges center on a goal encapsulated in massive (and therefore, really impressive) numbers.
The challenge with these massive numbers? Compassion fade: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."1
Our brains don’t know what to do with these huge numbers. Some of us likely nod along. (“It’s big, right?”) But this study focused on charitable causes found that feelings, not analytical thinking, drive donations. When participants were presented with messaging laden with statistics and a story about a single starving girl, the second approach worked better.
The same thing applies to businesses aligning themselves with a cause. If your goal is to stimulate all the feels, give me the good stuff.
Corona did create videos about individual beach cleanups, but they’re heavy on the numbers and well-branded team shots, absent the small child having their day at the beach stymied by plastic trash.
If you want to go beyond pledge porn, do this instead.
Now, for those who want to move beyond superficial stimulation and engage in real communication with people, share what you’ve done not what you promise to do. Here’s how you can do it without spouting numbers and falling victim to compassion fade.
1. Always tell the truth.
People must be able to trust what you share. Any perversion of artistic license, abuse of narrative, or other choice that would cause someone to doubt your motives creates mistrust that undermines your relationships. Don’t do it. Period.
2. Know where your numbers came from.
Sometimes, you want to include numbers. (See that? Include. Not make the whole meal.) When you do, know exactly where they come from. You may even want to include footnotes to spell out the source of your numbers or how you arrived at them. Avoid vanity metrics that in no way represent real impact.
3. The most effective stories center on one person.
Avoid generalities and grand sweeping narratives in favor of telling one person’s story.
4. Live in the details and specifics of each story.
The particulars of the people you serve, your team, your practices, your location, your history — they’re what make you, you. Not only do they distinguish you from others, but they help people connect with and remember you because they can relate to you as real people.
5. Keep it simple.
Not every story you tell has to be a surprising, edge-of-your-seat epic. Some of the most successful and memorable stories are simple. Less is usually more.
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But what about my moonshot?
Yes, ambitious goals serve a purpose and can unite people to achieve amazing things. Using them as sensationalist messaging, however, provides no real value — everyone gets a cheap thrill, and nothing actually happens.
The question is simple: What’s the point of making the pledge? Is it about the campaigns you can run and the employee volunteer days you can offer? Or are you trying to drive real value?
The first is a stunt.2 The latter means success is delivering value. It surfaces questions like, “Okay, you cleaned this beach in 2021. Are you planning to go back to keep it clean? What prevents the plastic from returning?”
It also means I don’t only want to know that you cleaned 47 beaches and removed 735,613.61 pounds of plastic; I want to know what difference that made.
In the case of Corona, I’d love to follow someone who went to the beach as a kid, was disappointed by the state of it when they brought their own kids, and how now, post Corona clean up, they enjoy the pristine beach (*music swells*) even better than when they were a kid.
Delivering that value — and delivering it long-term — requires meaningful communication, consistent effort, and constant adjustment to ensure those efforts work.
That’s what a real relationship looks like.
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Honestly, I have to ask why Corona is cleaning beaches rather than solely focusing on the problem at the source by reducing plastic and waste via their workflow. 100 isn’t all that many over several years. It smells of a PR stunt.