Don’t Nick Your Story Subjects
By Nick Ellinger, Chief Brand Officer
Last week, thousands of avid distance runners got Nicked. No, I didn’t do something so dumb my name became a verb (though that could still happen!). The New York City marathon set their rejection emails out with the above smiling image of Nick, a 2023 runner, as the opening.
Let’s set aside the dissonance between this happy image and the “sorry, you aren’t getting in” messaging. The NYC Marathon used this image without notifying Nick, who was labeled briefly on the Internet as “the most hated man in running.”
They also used the same email to reject Nick himself from running in the 2024 Marathon.
That’s right. This guy opened his email, saw his smiling picture, and had to read the rejection email.
The NYC Marathon was within its rights to use this picture, as runners signed a photo waiver to participate. But it would seem the polite thing to do to notify someone that you are making them the face of rejection, including their own.
As nonprofits, we are stewards not only of donors’ dollars but of the stories of those with whom we work. Many make themselves vulnerable, telling of their worst days or best days. That’s a sacred trust neither the nonprofit nor partners like us can or should breach.
A great example of doing it right is from a client we’re proud to represent: the National World War II Museum. They have a new exhibit called Voices from the Front. The exhibit allows visitors to ask questions of WWII veterans and supporters, using AI to interpret the questions and answer with the actual voice of the veteran or supporter of the war effort. All of this was done in consultation with the subjects, with their consent and active participation.
Is it perfect? No – nothing in life is. Sometimes, when you ask the person a question, the AI can’t categorize it. Thankfully, the veteran or supporter replies, in their voice, “I don’t have an answer for that,” rather than supplying a response that doesn’t fit the question.
However, because they honored the person and the story, the people involved in the exhibit are passionate promoters instead of a bemused Nick receiving his own rejection.
As we shift toward AI having a greater part of the creative process, this engagement with the people whose stories we are telling becomes ever more important. In our March State of the Union call, we recommended that every organization have an AI policy; one of the key points in Moore’s is that we will not use AI without the consent of the organization for which we are doing creative and of the people involved.
A great example of this is a video ad we worked on for a healthcare organization. The voiceover was from a child who did a magnificent job. However, the script that listed all the people who made great outcomes possible was missing nurses. To cover this omission two years ago, we would have to bring the child back into the recording studio to capture “and nurses” in dialogue. Today, with the enthusiastic consent of both the organization and the child’s family, we could add that dialogue seamlessly and at low cost.
Think of how that would have landed if that had been a surprise to the family. They could have been Nicked!
That’s why we advocate that each organization has an AI policy and that great stories start with great consent. The stories we use are so powerful and that power can have good, or good impacts.
