Ontario’s lawyers launch a PR campaign to show that they’re human
The Ontario Bar Association launched a slick ad campaign today aimed at shaking the prevailing image of lawyers as greedy prevaricators. According to Brian Howlett of ad firm Agency59, the multi-platform offensive is designed to “humanize the lawyer” by telling the stories of why some of them went to law school. (Presumably, the testimonials steer away from answers like “I wanted to put off getting a job for another few years” or “lawyers make a ton of dough.”) Asked to explain why they’re so disliked in the first place, some lawyers told the Globe and Mail it came down to the adversarial nature of litigation and a general lack of awareness of their social, political and charitable contributions. Howlett, however, has another explanation, one that, ironically, echoes the stereotypically arrogant lawyer: “There is probably a bit of envy…There may also be that insecurity you get when there is someone in the room who is smarter than you.” [Globe and Mail]
Good luck with that. It’s not the image but the questionable substance of the “profession” that is the problem. Perhaps putting a little more effort into right and wrong versus billing would be a good start.Unfortunately the bad lawyers poison the environment and there is a lack of diligence to address the wrongs that give a good lawyer a bad name.
Howlett obviously doesn’t work on the PR campaign, just the advertising bull$hit.