The Role of Decision-Making in Understanding Context

As we delve into the larger context surrounding our field of study and its associated professions, we’ll adopt a decision-making lens. How do current trends, concerns, and research within our academic discipline influence the choices we make regarding our academic and professional development or personal interests? In simpler terms, what knowledge do we need about our field to make informed decisions?

A Marketing Mishap: The Affinity Shampoo Commercial

To grasp the relationship between context and decision-making, let’s examine a marketing campaign that stumbled due to a lack of consideration for context’s impact on consumer behavior. Take a moment to watch the Affinity Shampoo Commercial (please note that the video quality is subpar, but it conveys the advertisers’ approach).

At first glance, the commercial seems innocuous—after all, who wouldn’t desire luscious hair? However, despite the shampoo’s potential benefits, women refrained from purchasing it. Why? Because they didn’t want to associate themselves with being “older.” The marketing campaign overlooked a critical cultural context: American attitudes toward aging during the 1980s. The consequences were significant.

As you can see from the Affinity shampoo example, a series of decisions went into the making of the commercial: how the product would be described in the voiceover, the gender of the voiceover artist, the gender of the model, the age of the model, what she would say, what the product packaging would look like, the product tagline on the screen, and so on. When you view the commercial, you can see that every one of these decisions made sense-except they ignored the larger context of America’s youth culture.

Please read the article: “Riding Happy into the Golden Years,” to learn more about the fall out of Affinity shampoo and the consequences of misreading an audience.

Additional horrible and/or unfortunate ads whose marketing teams misread context:

• 1. Bud Light’s “Up for Whatever” Campaign (2015):
     • Bud Light’s campaign featured slogans like “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary.”   . This link will take you to a blog that provides commentary on the most recent ads that are particularly controversial. Scroll down about halfway to view the Bud Light commercial.
  2. Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner Ad (2017):
     • In an attempt to address social justice issues, Pepsi released an ad showing Kendall Jenner handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer during a protest. The context of real-world protests and the Black Lives Matter movement made this ad tone-deaf and trivializing of serious issues¹.
  3. Dove’s “Real Beauty” Campaign (2017):
     • Dove’s campaign aimed to celebrate diverse beauty but faced backlash when an ad showed a black woman removing her shirt to reveal a white woman underneath. The context of historical racist imagery led to accusations of insensitivity and perpetuating harmful stereotypes¹.
  4. H&M’s “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” Hoodie (2018):
     • H&M featured a young black boy wearing a hoodie with the phrase “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.” The context of racial history and stereotypes caused outrage, highlighting the need for cultural sensitivity in advertising¹.
  5. Gillette’s “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” Ad (2019):
     • Gillette’s ad addressing toxic masculinity sparked controversy. While the context of promoting positive behavior was well-intentioned, some viewers felt it unfairly portrayed all men negatively¹.
  6. Peloton’s “The Gift That Gives Back” Ad (2019):
     • Peloton’s holiday ad showed a woman receiving an exercise bike as a gift and sparked discussions about body image and consumerism. The context of privilege and unrealistic expectations drew criticism¹.

  Remember that context matters, and understanding cultural nuances and sensitivities is crucial for successful advertising campaigns.

  For more examples and in-depth analysis, explore the article “Brand Backlash: Are 2023’s Epic Marketing Fails Part of a Bigger Problem?”¹.

Strategic Decision-Making: It’s Not Just for Marketing Executives & CEOs

The Center for Simplified Strategic Planning (CSSP)2 defines strategic thinking in a way that is directly relevant to making decisions about academic and professional development:

Strategic thinking is a process that defines the manner in which people think about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and others. Strategic thinking is an extremely effective and valuable tool. One can apply strategic thinking to arrive at decisions that can be related to your work or personal life. Strategic thinking involves developing an entire set of critical skills. What are those critical skills? (“Strategic Thinking,” n.d.)

Visit the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning to learn about the eleven critical skills for strategic thinking.

Reference

Strategic thinking: 11 critical thinking skills. (n.d.). Retrieved July 26, 2021, from Center for Simplified Strategic Planning website: https://www.cssp.com/CD0808b/ CriticalStrategicThinkingSkills/