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In this latest posting, we share a  personal perspective on the credit crisis from one of our team. She raises serious questions about responsibility for the current crisis amongst those in the older generation who had the authority to do otherwise but who were happy to let the time bomb tick away.

This contribution is anonymous but it stands for the experience of thousands of young people who, in our opinion, were let down by successive Governments who could have but who did not protect the most vulnerable in society.

” I was naïve, I admit it. Like many other twenty-somethings, I have lived my life believing that borrowing money to pay for what you want is the norm. We were never told that getting into debt should be a last resort – quite the opposite in fact.

” From a fairly early age (17/18) I was encouraged to borrow money. While at college a local car dealer came to talk to my class about payment schemes on a brand new Citroen Saxo, and a special offer of the first two years insurance free – worth a lot to a student.

” Then, when I turned 18, I was advised by my bank to apply for a credit card so that I could start building up a credit history – unfortunately a credit history wasn’t the only thing I built up!

” However, it’s not just banks and businesses that encouraged me to access credit. In 1998 the Government introduced tuition fees for university students. My school year was the first to be affected.

” A few years later I found it relatively easy to get a mortgage. Of course, I had outstanding debts and no savings, but Northern Rock did not hesitate to offer me the full value of the house plus a substantial amount on top as an unsecured loan.

” I have recently been wondering whether social marketing could have helped me, and others like me, by warning us of the consequences of living our lives through credit.

” Social marketing is a form of marketing that aims to create awareness of an issue, educate the audience and ultimately change behaviours.

” To date, the benefits of credit have been (and still are) widely advertised – you only have to watch television commercials to see, for less than the cost of a haircut each month, how easily you can get a new sofa or a top of the range TV.  But the warnings have all been hidden in the small print of the credit agreement – not openly discussed and certainly not advertised.

” This is why, for me, the recession has been a huge wake-up call. The media have highlighted to me how quickly situations can change and how ruthless companies can be in chasing debt.

” So with national debt in the UK reaching a staggering £1.475 billion and exceeding GDP, I ask myself should more have been done to create awareness of this time bomb to change behaviours before it was too late?

” In my opinion, more could have be done to challenge our perceptions of the norm. As a result individuals might then have given more consideration to alternative options before taking out additional debt to fund a purchase or simply to get by.

” Realistically, however, I think social marketing will never be able to compete effectively with the big budgets of retailers. One example of this is the drinks industry.

” In September the British Medical Association called for a total ban on alcohol advertising. The drinks industry spends £800 million a year promoting drinks, of which £200 million is spent on advertising. Social marketing campaigns, such as the Campaign for Smarter Drinking, have increased their budgets (spread over five years), but this is still only half of what the drinks industry spends on advertising in a year, let alone on sponsorship and point of sales promotions.

” I believe that there is a moral obligation on business and Government to make consumers aware of the risks of debt. Banks, for example, who offer unsecured loans – whether through a loan, credit card or hire purchase agreement – should be obliged to contribute towards social marketing campaigns to raise awareness and educate about the risks. Unsecured debt should be capped at a maximum percentage of an individual’s gross salary.

” I also feel strongly that the Government should enlist the help of marketing professionals to help them create a sales and marketing code of conduct that every company who offers consumers any form of credit should be required to adhere to so that they do not actively target high-risk consumers, simply to meet sales targets.

” Committing to follow this code of conduct should form part of a company’s corporate social responsibility programme.  

” There certainly needs to be greater investment in social marketing to raise awareness of the risks of debt with a greater financial contribution from market leaders, such as banks, credit card companies and high street retailers.  This investment needs to be much closer to the amount that companies spend on advertising their credit products.

” Social marketing is not a new phenomenon – we have had anti-smoking marketing campaigns for years – and now it is becoming more common practice. It is an effective communication medium and one that could make a real difference to the long-term sustainability of the economy.  

” The media has done the job of social marketing over the last 12 months. It has really opened my eyes to how quickly the economy can turn and how much people have to lose if they cannot meet their minimum repayments.

” For me, the recession has taught me that continuous cycles of borrowing should not be the norm. I have already noticed my own behaviour changing as a result. I hope that some lessons will be learned as a result of this crisis and some actions put in place now so that today’s teenagers do not become tomorrow’s sub-prime victims.”

Pendry White is highly supportive of its staff member who has laid it on the line to the generation of politicians and corporate executives who failed her for a quick tax buck based on maximising corporate profits.

If you are a financial services company that is plugging allegedly cheap too-easy credit to students, under-21s, the disadvantaged or the low-paid, don’t come to us but find a marketing services business that is as shark-like as you are.