For as long as I can remember, advertising professionals have ranked at (or near) the bottom in pretty much every public survey of trustworthiness.

In other words, the public thinks we’re dirtbags.

Which is why it’s so heartening to see bankers and financial professionals working so diligently to displace advertising professionals from the highest (or lowest?) rung of the dirtbag ladder.

After all, even if I had inserted one baldfaced lie in every piece of copy I’ve written over the decades, the worst I would have done is create some ill-will towards my customers. Maybe generated a couple of small fines.

Greedy bankers, by contrast, almost toppled the world economy and continue to torpedo its recovery. And as the LIBOR scandal amply demonstrates, they’re still striving to become the best gosh-darn sleazebags they can be.

Of course, it’s a little unfair: by law I’m not allowed to lie in my marketing copy, yet apparently no similar “truth” laws protected the LIBOR interest rate from rampant manipulation).

In other words, it was never a fair contest. And frankly, I’m excited.

Very soon — as more banking scandals come to light — it’s entirely possible that my colleagues and I won’t be the most despised professionals on the face of the planet.

Thank you, banking industry. You screwed a few of my friends out of their homes (in at least one case wrongly), but more importantly, you’re making it possible for advertising professionals to hold our heads high again.

Or, more accurately, you’re now #1.

You earned it.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

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