You gotta start somewhere! Drawing marketers as a technique for inspiring students to aspire to be more responsible

Critical marketing studies examines the impact of marketing activities on the social and ecological environment and questions the detrimental effects of the short-term pursuit of profit that often underpin these activities. To position marketing students as responsible marketers ready to respond to current crises and help prevent future disasters, it is not enough to merely expose and sensitise students to the consequences of mainstream marketing activities. The profession and practices must change to reflect a different set of values and commitments without guilt-tripping or shaming future marketers for any current complicity with dominant value systems that disregard the social responsibility of marketing. As a creative method and pedagogical tool, drawing is uniquely suited to meet this challenge. First, before putting pencil to paper, drawing invites students to slow down to access what they think and feel, as well as affords them time to survey their attitudes and feelings and provides a pause to generate ideas (Bagnoli, 2009). Furthermore, in bringing together and mediating thoughts, ideas, attitudes and feelings (Bohmbach, 2014; Odhiambo, 2020) students are enabled to reflect, on their own terms, on what they otherwise take for granted (Vince & Warren, 2012). Drawing is a safe way for self-disclosure and communication, to start and have a conversation, and to provoke critical thinking through follow-up questions (Odhiambo, 2020). These qualities are necessary to configuring what a responsible marketer is, looks like and does, and hence for exploring identity creation (Gauntlett, 2007), driven by a critically constructive reflexivity (Alvesson & Sköldsberg, 2018). With the aim of outlining a responsible role for marketers in business and society, our project engages students in a multi-layered drawing project that draws out existing assumptions and perceptions towards imagining a better and brighter future.