"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.

"Unless, of course, you can literally believe all that stuff about family reunions 'on the further shore,' pictured in entirely earthly terms. But that is all unscriptural, all out of bad hymns and lithographs. There's not a word of it in the Bible. And it rings false. We know it couldn't be like that. Reality never repeats. The exact same thing is never taken away and given back. How well the Spiritualists bait their hook! 'Things on this side are not so different after all.' There are cigars in Heaven. For that is what we should all like. The happy past restored."  

- CS Lewis (A Grief Observed)

Conflict of Interest.

Hypothetical situation: Let's say I'm an atheist and I'm asked to advertise/design/create something for a Church or Christian organisation, could I do it? (I could be designing an atheist poster, but I think atheist posters are rather improbable.)

Or let's say I'm a vegan, could I design a corporate identity for a butcher? If I'm a feminist and asked to create a brochure detailing male accomplishments. Or a nature lover asked to design something for an oil conglomerate, would I do it?

I can of course, decide to do it professionally, separate my own personal views with that of my job's. But in a creative industry I think success depends on your ideas, and idea generation can only be possible if one is compelled, driven to think creatively. I might try all I want to think of ideas for a Eat Dog Meat advertisement, but you know what, I think the ideas I'd come up with would be generic, lousy ideas at best. Because I wouldn't want to create a Eat Dog Meat advertisement in the first place, I personally would much rather want to create a Don't Eat Dog Meat advertisement, and I think thinking of creative ideas for such a cause would be much easier.

I think my conclusion is that it's rather impossible to advertise/design for a product/cause that you are against. There are of course, many products and causes that you are neutral towards; I wouldn't have any problems designing for an umbrella shop (purely hypothetical because at point of writing, I don't know any shop dedicated to selling umbrellas). There are also products and causes that you are passionate about, I would definitely be interested in designing for a camera shop, but usually you don't run into such opportunities very often (which is why I have not designed for a camera shop).

But for products and causes that you are against, that's the hard part. Is it possible?

I think the weirdest thoughts start coming to me around 4 in the Morning.