Principals Up In Smoke?

My agency partners and I are faced with a dilemma on some new business. Do we accept a tobacco account on the basis that some in our relatively young and small agency are happy to work on a tobacco client or stick to my (and others’) principles and decline it? Would members of the agency feel like they really have the choice of not working on the account? Do I have the right to deny others the financial rewards this could provide? Would we be hypocrites to take the cash and not publicise the relationship?

You are asking someone who helped develop the original NHS Together Programme which supports smokers in giving up. Yet being an ex-smoker I know the pull it has and I also understand the ethical conflict you have as a business. You are a young, small agency – no doubt finding the climate tough and wanting to generate income to secure everyone’s short term futures. It is a difficult dilemma.

You are in a formative stage in the development of your business. I could suggest a democratic way by having an agency vote and abiding by the decision but I think you will still come up against the problem later. Smoking is quite an emotive issue. Some people have lost relatives through cancer. Others do not get smoking at all and think it should be banned. A tobacco account is consequently a highly charged issue and the agency is not at a size where it can be hived off in a separate division. In fact, depending on how big you are, most of the agency will need to be involved in it – from creative teams to finance.

I would advise staying away from it – for the key reason that you mention the management team is also not in agreement. Considering you/they should provide clear leadership and conversely need a tight ship, I suspect this issue will create more dangerous rifts than it will help secure business.