The end is near for advertising (well, almost, maybe, perhaps)

I would like to share with you a quote from Alex Bogusky: “I don’t know why there’s such self-loathing in the industry, but ever since I’ve been in advertising, practitioners have been predicting its demise.”

I’ve noticed this too.

Bogusky made this comment when he was recalling a time when people were predicting the end of print.

And I have been noticing it for the last few years as people talk about the eventual end of TV advertising.

Why does this continually happen? Is it because so many of us “fell into advertising” after our original goal of novelist/movie maker/professional gambler didn’t pay off? Perhaps we secretly want advertising to fail so we could get on with our true calling in life.

Whatever the cause, it concerns me. How can our clients believe in advertising if we don’t?

Especially since we do know that advertising can work.

Not that it works every time.

But imagine a doctor denouncing all medicine because one patient died on the operating table.

A more interesting approach for people in our field is to embrace change, but recognize that existing mediums probably won’t completely go away within our lifetimes (radio is still a powerful tool); to recognize what advertising can and can’t do and set reasonable expectations with clients (the potential ROI of advertising is vastly different when we’re talking about launching a highly innovative new product than when we’re talking about boosting market share for a tried-and-true commodity-type product); and believe that our skills will continue to be needed tomorrow (how, what, and where we sell might change, but we would still be selling something).

Do you agree? Please let me know in the comments. Don’t wait. Be sure to post your remarks today. That way, I would be able to review them before I start hearing about the end of the Internet.