A quick internet search reveals that the social impact of advertising is perceived largely in negative terms. Now that more brands are building socially-progressive (civil) platforms, we need to consider ways to measure the positive social impact of specific brand communications.

The recent call for a ban on airbrushing in ads by the Liberal Democrats (see previous post) prompts a need to measure not just public opinion on social issues that are at the heart of a particular civil brand, but to measure the positive impact of brand communications on political policy.

At Brandinstinct we feel that Dove’s long-running Campaign for Real Beauty, which promotes self esteem in women, helped create the environment for political action and helped the Liberal Democrats call for the ban.

Defining more civil brand platforms is not just a way to engage people in wider society, it is a way to influence politicians on values and ideas with the benefit of creating social change. Being involved in social change in this way opens up new opportunities for brand differentiation.

Measurement tools will need to evolve to include political policy shifts. If these new measures are adopted by the most active civil brands, we can capture the impact of civil branding on social progress via political-influence.