Ah, June is certainly here.
The month when the global advertising industry unveils its benevolence.
All for the greater good.
For the last 11 months, we have allowed our hearts and souls to well up.
We will now sally forth, strive, and showcase the best in us for the world’s unfortunate.
Regardless of where they live, what they speak, and what they eat.
Even if they have claws, fangs, or fins.
Human suffering too isn’t exempt during this month of our collective karma.
For long we have chased the infernal post, the tricky pixel, and the elusive big idea.
It’s time for our redemption.
Across London, New York, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, and Dhaka, our offices will be busier than beehives.
We shall empty every cylinder of empathy and concern.
Secret stashes of agency money squirrelled away, will be put to just use.
Why have bank balances if we can’t try to quell the effects of consumerism and commercialism.
Shouldn’t greed be temporarily sacrificed for the sake of preservation?
We are not cold empty people.
There are so many problems to solve, and plenty of causes to chase.
There are whales in the oceans groaning for our immediate attention.
Choked as they are in plastic trash.
There are rhinos in Africa playing hide and seek with savage poachers and their hacksaws.
There are dolphins crying to be rescued from the battering rams off the bay of Taiji in Japan.
There are flowers wilting in the sun, imploring us to send drones filled with moisture.
There are mothers who need crowns of young hair. Thin men who need insurance from beer bellies. And children who need trees that grow indoors.
There are savings habits to be inculcated among the Cherokees, appreciation of art to be inspired among the Inuits, and carpet restoration to be shared among the Touaregs.
There are new apps to be downloaded. To count global coconut trees, add and subtract sand grains, shield attacks from aggressive rabbits, and ignite fire inside underwater caves in the Bermuda Triangle.
Just in case.
There are also hopeless refugees, calcium deficient women, frostbitten soldiers, geriatric cats, missing snails, and obese tomatoes to care for and rehabilitate.
All waiting for us, all looking at us, for help and assistance.
The world is a gaping abyss of issues that will take our best minds and ideas to plug.
It’s all up to us.
Nature and mankind have no one else.
Our responsibility is much larger than what was written in our appointment letters.
Dear brave men and women of advertising, this is our salvation month.
Leave no media alone. Ignore no platform, format, or technology.
Invent and innovate if your idea requires it.
Print on stones. Televise to aliens. Beam to birds. Talk to termites.
Our planet depends on us. June is sacrosanct.
Let’s never forget why we have been put on this Earth.
The writer is the co-founder and CCO Bang In The Middle. Views expressed are personal.