I just hit the “send” button on a message to a client that advised them to delete a picture from their website.  The client, a music group, had some new photos taken for promotion.  As a joke, the one photo had all of them making silly faces and holding cigarettes.  The one kid was holding  a condom and the other was holding a knife.

It was meant to be funny, and at first glance, it was.  But I thought a little further about the messaging behind the photo, and I was terrified.

The group is a proud supporter of To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement that promotes mental health awareness and support for those who struggle with things like cutting, addiction, etc.  The cigarettes were tongue in check, the condoms were a little innuendo.  But the knife thing got me worried about encouraging or glamorizing cutting.  For a teenage audience, I want to be careful about anything that insinuates a comical image of cutting, especially when the client has worked so hard to raise awareness and support for people troubled by it.

This is the first time I’ve found myself in a position where I am advising someone to pull back the reigns and err on the side of conservative.  I pretty much pride myself on being fun, silly, out there, edgy – and completely willing to be different.  But for the first time I’m the serious one.  I’m the one with all the “let’s just be safe” and the “just in case.”  Despite my good intentions, I feel like the bad guy.  No one is making me feel like the bad guy.  I just feel like the bad guy.  Oh my God, I’m the boring one.

But it feels like the right thing to do.

Am I growing up?