First-Person: Groundswell

by Jeff Cooper

The way we see it, Portfolio Center is a minority stakeholder in our new company, Groundswell. Granted, it’s a figurative piece of the pie, but we’d be remiss in ignoring the importance of those two fateful years in shaping our present…and our future.

Besides, Hank wouldn’t let us.

As you probably don’t know, Groundswell is an ad agency that works exclusively with socially responsible clients, nonprofits included. We’re still a bit reluctant to refer to ourselves as simply an “ad agency” as it’s limiting. Plus, there are several unfortunate stigmas attached to the industry—which is precisely why we decided to start our own company in the first place.

Groundswell’s reason for being is this: we believe it is our responsibility as mass communicators to be more critical of the companies we choose to do business with and to first and foremost consider their contribution to the greater good—not just to our own bottom line. Our industry has been far too reluctant to acknowledge its role in many of today’s social problems: over consumption, personal debt, health related illnesses, etc. Are we solely to blame? Of course not. But if we’re paid to glamorize tobacco, aren’t we at least indirectly responsible for the 440,000+ deaths in the U.S. each year from smoking-related illnesses? If we market junk food to children, then aren’t we partly to blame for the fact that almost 31% of American children age 6-19 are considered overweight? These are just two glaring examples, but there are plenty more.

The problem is this. The vast majority of ad agencies look for one of two things: a client that can bring in revenue, or a client that can bring in creative awards. Everything else is secondary. There are certainly agencies that work with responsible brands, and, unfortunately, these are the very same agencies that peddle the aforementioned junk food, along with gas-guzzling SUVs, and clothes made by workers earning slave wages. It’s not that the agency people doing the work explicitly support these things; it’s just that they don’t take the time to think about it.

So, as much as we're hoping to get consumers to consider the consequences of their purchases, we're also hoping to get our industry to reconsider the role it plays within society. Bill Bernbach, one of advertising’s most legendary figures, once said, “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it to a higher level.”

How does Portfolio Center play into all of this? Well, we can’t say as though we were prone to thinking about all things socially responsible while attending PC some 8 years ago. Sure, we recycled and did our part for the environment (read: recycled). But there were no classes on responsibility or ethics, and no seminars that focused on our role in society as designers. But it’s no fault of the school’s. It’s just that the connection between social responsibility and advertising or design wasn’t really topical. Besides, we were so busy doing piles of ads for Tony Messano, we barely had time to use the bathroom let alone consider if our books could be printed using soy-based inks.

In fact, when we first started our company we had no idea this is where it would lead. As we began researching clients that appealed to us, it turned out that most of them were socially responsible. Soon we found ourselves applying these principles to our own business. And now that we think about it, we wouldn’t be in this position had we not learned to embrace our curiosity and constantly question the status quo. These were habits beaten into us from day one at Portfolio Center…along with the importance of tenacity and a thick skin—both very helpful in business.

But perhaps the greatest gift Portfolio Center has given us is the people we were surrounded with on a daily basis. Never before had we been in the company of so many talented and passionate people who complemented each other’s abilities and got along so famously. The relationships we formed there have been invaluable. As a start-up, Groundswell doesn’t yet have the client base to afford full-time help, but our fellow alums have provided us with an endless source of talent and inspiration. In fact, our logo and stationery were designed by a recent grad while she was a student.

Our time at 125 Bennett Street remains the most influential period of our lives. And, yes, we recommend printing your portfolios on post-consumer recycled content paper using soy-based ink.