HIGH IDEALS: A Letter on the Origins of Schema's 5 Activist Domains

Dear reader, I am writing to you as an idealistic, somewhat grumpy and slightly antisocial marketer to sell an idea.

The idea is contrarian, uncomfortable, unpopular and costly - but I'm sure that it's something that lives at the back of your mind as a professional, both junior and senior. It is the idea of telling the truth and backing it with real action.

You may be inclined to ask, how dare I tarnish the sacred art of SEO blogging, and rob it of its keywords, AI-generated copy and marketing slang to deliver a personal tirade on truth-saying? A dare-devil I am, and this letter read you will.

As your one-sided pen-pal, allow me to start making the case for a seemingly dodgy form of corporate activism with a personal story on youthful contrarianism, which affected the way I think and work in marketing.

During my second job at a UK marketing agency, I learned that there is a time and place for energy and enthusiasm in the corporate world - especially when the marcomms industry tends to be somewhat liberal with the use of motivational buzz-words.

Everyday, idealistic visions of "changing the world" and "corporate social responsibility" see the light of day, and everyone can feel fuzzy when patting their own backs - but real change that is not only words or AI-generated copy is relatively rare, almost never materializing the way it was intended.

In cases of exaggerated promises on sustainability, we call it greenwashing. But, do we have a keyword to describe it in every single trade and sector? All I can think of is "whitewashing", and nothing else seems to have gained mainstream use. Hence most unkept promises go unnoticed, hidden behind infinite tirades of marketing noise.

Our agency offices were located on the grounds of my Alma Mater - a business incubation centre, that was a few steps away from the business & law study's building. For authenticity, we're talking the University of Lincoln's David Chiddick building.

As per usual, I went for a walk during lunch and found myself being stopped by a bunch of marcomms students - they were promoting themselves to become student union presidents. Alright, I bit the cookie and dropped the "what are your policies and change that you'll enact?".

Turns out the cookie was all that I got, because that simple question was met by silence, confusion and an air of discomfort which kind of paints the image of a freshly caught carp struggling for air. Fair enough, it's not like I had any delusions on the value of Britains higher education - took my 250 kcal and walked away.

But it stayed with me for the rest of the day. On a relatively boring afternoon, I kept thinking about the student stall. A cookie, a brochure, a person - presence with no essence. Would I do it differently? Is it worth having a stance on anything whatsoever? Does it matter if we take change seriously and practice an air of controversy, if necessary?

To scratch this OCD itch, I looked at our clientele and our projects. A social enterprise, a cafe, a tech start-up, a food award-company - what did they had us say on their behalf? One profited from promoting the products and services from other social enterprises - they took on countless statements of purpose and change-making - yet didn't commit to any original thought of their own.

The cafe preached sustainability, yet all they did was order fair-trade coffee beans, wrapped in plastic packaging, then called it "industry standards".

The tech start-up was the only one out of the bunch - tech that enables better user experience for charities to receive donations and promote their activities.

The award-company was just a upper class middle-age wife hobby, and they used every single trope they could get away with - from greenwashing to social change - without producing any value of their own (imagine 12 ladies having endless Zoom meetings with no sense of urgency or professional standards - zero creativity, only safe plays, all catering to the one who's actually funding it all). That's an average day in the SME world.

"I hate mediocrity" - famous last words, uttered by my more youthful, idealistic-self that afternoon. And the word "mediocrity" doesn't do justice to my current, 10-year matured world of view anymore. I'd go with "lies", "manipulation", "deception", before ever breaching "mediocrity", but, after a decade of involvement in the shaping of these corporate policies, I found myself swaying into this pile of bile due to forced that are beyond the intuition of a one-man marketing army.

Sitting alone at a marketing department, after the entire roster resigned due to work pressure at this black-company in the middle of BKK, I released plenty of lies. Lies that were rarely unique; carbon copies of the next big corporate office building. I justified it to myself as a professional function - they have their brainless ESG engine and I'm not allowed enough time nor sleep to practice the luxury to audit it - so let's just communicate what the CEO, F&B, Ops teams report on.

Not my call, right? Afterall, who am I to question their statements, when greenwashed info lands on my table and demands a same-day PR release that serves no marketing value? Just pay me - I'm merely a reflection, a megaphone, a social media admin.

And so I let mediocrity slip past my filter as a marcomms leader. The same way that student fed me a dry raisin cookie, I fed you greenwashed lies of a soulless corporate establishment.

But then, a chance for redemption, a sort of professional awakening. When you start your own business - as an idealist, contrarian, maximalist - you ask yourself is it possible to do certain things that were previously unapproachable - to fix the wrongs of the past and perhaps even tell the truth, for once. At worst, you die unnoticed; at best you scratch your soul by standing for something you value. Suddenly it's your call, and there's no friction - only legal copy. And there we go - Schema is founded and I'm typing my heart out, realizing an idea of activism that is based on telling the truth, exposing lies, and punishing... mediocrity. Part of it is sentencing ourselves to higher standards, some of it is likely to result in lost contracts, but all of it is true, actionable and in support of our idea of higher standards in communication and "doing good".

We've created 5 activist policies that are formalized in our client contracts and strictly enforced in our business dealings and labour. Labelled as activist domains, let them cleanse your palate from the everyday corporate greenwashing slop:

1. War on Ukraine - disassociation from russian-aligned entities and individuals by refusal of contact; association with pro-Ukraine entities and individuals through pro-bono marcomms work.

2. Sustainability - strict anti-greenwashing marcomms standards; disassociation from corporate blanket greenwashing frameworks, such as ESG, CSR, B Corp and similar; prioritisation of projects and brands that practice true sustainable actions and truthful communications; disassociation and expose stance on ideologically captured wasteful corporate policies in sustainability.

3. Animal Welfare - Direct pro-bono support for local feline wellness and rescue charities in Bangkok; strict disassociation from business entities in relevant industries that are hostile or neutral towards animal welfare (such as Animal Testing in the Beauty sector).

4. Mental Health - Development of real tools and products to support the total wellness of office professionals through our total wellness brand - "mindflow"; disassociation from and denial of service to known black-companies; prioritization of clientele that have a proven track record of positive, universal, non-discriminatory, non-greenwashed, realistic HR policies that ensure the wellness of employees.

5. Freedom of Speech - formal free-speech absolutism stance and activism in support of freedom of expression - legal, social, personal and creative; open and strict negative stance against any and all policies that restrict freedom of speech, be it law or public discourse.

Notice how there's no ESG, CSR, B Corp and other corporate slop involved - that is by design. As someone who had the gag-reflex inducing displeasure to practice professional yapping about ESG, I've seen its implementation in the real world, and, as you may have experienced this yourself, it's rarely more than a comfortable lie. And so we dismiss it. Bury it in a sea of mediocrity, inaction, sleep-deprived consciousness, manufactured urgency and analysis paralysis - let it drown in a world of corporate boot licking and double speak. The next 5 blog entries cover each of our activist policies. I'll show you how each is enforced with legal, formal, real-world business practice and activist action - consider this an invitation to develop your own or connect with us in support of our domains. Next letter is on Ukraine. Unthink Marketing, Harry @ Schema