Spain: Honest communication, a challenge for NGOs

According to Eloisa Nos Aldás, who has just published a book that analyses the sincerity of NGO?s advertising campaigns, NGOs are scared of being honest. Nos Aldás is communication and advertisment professor at the Jaume I University of Castellon, Spain.

?Although there are, of course, NGOs that launch effective communication campaigns that reflect their values, the vast majority of NGOs tend to contradict their goals as social educators?, says Nos Aldás, who adds that this is usually because of the pressure they are under to raise funds.

Language and communication
Her book, Advertising language and the discourse of charity, looks at the language that NGOs use when communicating, through advertisng campaigns, to the general public, and the extent to which the language they use reflects their stated mission and goals.

She looks at real advertising campaigns to build her argument, and highlights that often NGOs use their years of experience in the sector to legitimise themselves as a brand, rather than as social educators. Their campaigns, she says, put their audience at the centre which serve sto send out the message that what counts is their donations. So NGOs fall into the consumer society trap whereby consumption becomes the ultimate goal and remedy, while other values, such as responsible development, get left behind.

Advertising a powerfull tool
?Advertising can be a powerful tool for promoting social values and empowering social change? affirms Nos Aldás. And there are many examples of good practices, she cites Greenpeace and Intermon Oxfam as among the most successful.

?But often development NGOs contradict the educational values they stand for?, says Javier Erro, a sociologist and social educator who helped Nos Aldás in her research. Like Nos he believes that NGOs often fail in their role as educators because they get lost in other tasks, like administration and management.

When the message betrays the ends
NGOs are betrayed by the language they use, explains Erro. ?Development NGOs talk of ?work in the field? to refer to their work in developing countries. This implies that there is nothing that we should be doing here to change things?. Organisations with social goals should instead be taking advantage of their communication tools to increase political pressure and to encourage social change.

So what should NGOS be doing to make sure their language reflects their mission? According to Nos Aldás communiction must be effective within the organisations themselves, who should coordinate their objectives while pursuing communication strategies, projects, marketing campaigns and business relations. This way they will ensure that their values are represented coherently.

?If NGOs are clear about what their values are what they want to communicate to the public, then advertising can be a powerful tool for the third sector? concludes Erro.

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