Advertising for Peanuts

The Advertising For Peanuts Archives

2010-10-10T16:33:00.001-07:00

Hi there. Welcome to the Advertising for Peanuts Archives.

In case you aren't familiar with the legendary advertising blog of the Oughts, here's a little back-story. I started AFP in in 2005. I was a hungry Chicago copywriter at the time and started posting the very best ads from around the world wide web, along with my own brief, astute and often hilarious commentary. Advertising for Peanuts quickly became a darling of the ad blogosphere and grew to have a modest following, with a few thousand people stopping by daily for their quick ad fix.

In these archives you will find over four years of advertising history and 850 bits of ad candy and wisdom. This blog got me fired from my first job and, hired at my second job and was a twisted labor of love for many years.

At the end of 2007 I took a job at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and no longer had time to feed the ad world's insatiable appetite alone, so I enlisted the help of some friends and industry pros to help offer daily meditations on the biz through 2008.

If you are an ad student, seasoned pro, or just been watching a lot of Mad Men lately, I think you'll find something of value in these pages. So dig around and enjoy. Thanks.

If you'd like to check out my work or contact me go here - http://davidlittlejohn.com/

Thanks to all

2008-11-26T05:56:00.000-08:00

My hat is permanently off to Littlejohn for, among other things, having created and evolved this blog over the last few years. That’s a long life for any blog. And to have kept it vital the entire time is no mean feat.

As Littlejohn knows all too well, I am not a fan of the blahgosphere. I think that, while it does serve our collective need to communicate, it also serves to encourage a culture of self-importance and self-indulgence, it enables (in the negative sense) tons of unhealthy and wasteful behavior by people and businesses who would be better served getting a life or tending to their businesses. And it feeds the tendency to self-delusion that plagues thousands of would-be-if-they-could-be “writers”, “thought leaders”, “pundits” and so forth.

That being said, this blog has been a great experience for me. In particular, I’ve really enjoyed reading the posts of the other members of the peanut gallery, who have served up much to chew on. And it is thrilling to have gotten responses to some of my/our posts. For a person who has worked in the dark anonymity of advertising for almost 30 years, where we send out messages and never hear back from anybody, it is very gratifying and encouraging to read the thoughtful, funny and challenging things that many people have had to say in responding to my/our blatherings.

So I want to join Littlejohn and my fellow peanut gallery denizens in thanking every one of you who have consumed Advertisingforpeanuts.

Keep an eye on Littlejohn. You’ve not heard the last of that guy.

Next to lastly, in keeping with my decades-long tradition of exploiting every last opportunity to promote myself, let me offer two suggestions:

1) If any of you bloggers out there can find a way to make use of the random cantankerations (cantankerizations? cantankerosities?) of a grizzled ad guy, by all means let me know. I know just the guy, and he’s always looking for an outlet. (Is it slightly hypocritical to eviscerate the blahgosphere with one breath and pander to its population with the next?)

2) As a freelance copywriter, I am forever searching for new clients. I just can’t get enough of new learning curves and thorny communication problems. If you are, or you know anyone who is, in need of some powerful big thinking, or intended-for-human-consumption writing, whether you’re at an ad agency, design firm or a business of some sort, I encourage you to make contact. Keep in touch. Don’t be a stranger. Let’s have a conversation. You know where you can find me. Or, if you don’t, here’s where: jim@communicaterer.com.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with this simple reminder regarding advertising. In the words of Chairman Jimmy, “Advertising, like a good brassiere, is designed to lift and separate.”

The Death of an Advertising Blog

2008-11-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

(BOULDER, Co) - Advertising For Peanuts, the daily blog known to all its readers as the Consumer's Guide to Advertising, Media and Organic Produce, has died at the age of 3 (which, in blog years, was a good long life). Its final post was number 858. Its visitors total 1,211,743.

Advertising For Peanuts was born September 9th, 2005, in Chicago, Illinois. In its infancy AFP showcased daily the freshest and most innovative advertising found on the world wide web, accompanied by quippy comments via blog editor and creator Littlejohn (ad copywriter).

Above all, AFP always sought to highlight the good in each piece of creative, the part that makes the brain tingle. Some days AFP even offered a nugget of ad insight of its own. AFP never slammed, trashed or poo-pooed, and it always cited its sources. At its core, quiet simply, it was a place for ad nerds around the world to get their morning fix.

On November 11, 2007 Advertising for Peanuts found a new staff of esteemed writers and a grown up format: 7 columns, 7 writers, 7 days of the week. Each writer offered a unique perspective on the ad game, giving AFP a new depth, range and a varied voice. (It should be noted that, unlike Advertising For Peanuts, all of its writers are living and in good health. And perhaps, even interested in writing for your non-deceased blog. See their info to the right.)

You could say, in the end, that Advertising For Peanuts simply lost the will to live. But, while the blog itself might be dead, its content lives on forever, pingable and searchable by Google robots, in that great big archive in the cloud. So future generation can stumble upon the ideas and words written in these pages, only to realize this site actually has nothing at all to do with organic produce. Just another faulty search result in the ad blog blip of time.

Thanks to all of you, our loyal readers.
Feel free to pay your respects in the comments.

Advertising: the cottage (cheese) industry

2008-10-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

In these troubled times, here’s a reassuring thought. Advertising may languish at times like these, but it will never die. Because, like so many other disciplines, the effectiveness of which is wide open to interpretation, advertising is too squishy to be pinned down—like cottage cheese. You can’t dismiss a discipline in its entirety, once and for all, if you can’t come up with irrefutable evidence of its worthlessness. Some advertising seems to work sometimes. And that is enough of a carrot to keep businesses coming back for more.

Disciplines that vanish are those that can be definitively disproven and discredited. Alchemy. Phrenology. That kind of stuff. But advertising, bless its heart, will always be able to make a plausible (but never airtight) case for its effectiveness.

The influencing of human behavior in a gross and macro manner can’t generally be tested and proven successful or unsuccessful. You can look at the numbers and find evidence of the effect of advertising, maybe, but other variables invariably muddy the waters. Not the least of which is the psychological/emotional variable that inclines both agency and client to interpret numbers sympathetically and optimistically, because they need to justify the time, money and effort invested in it.

Of course, direct marketing zealots will be quick to point out that their brand of advertising is absolutely measurable, and I concede that point to them. But that subdivision of the advertising community, it seems, will forever be just that—a subdivision—because, among other reasons, that form of advertising doesn’t seem to lend itself to softer emotional brand image/brand voice advertising that contributes, presumably, to the long term health of the brand. So far, no one has cracked the code on making an ad funny or touching or provocative while at the same time screaming “but wait, that’s not all!” and pounding away at the 800 number or URL.

What about all this online/interactive stuff that is being heralded by many as the future of advertising?

All this alternative/guerrilla/webby stuff suffers from many of the same limitations that traditional advertising does. The metrics that are used are mostly indirect—click through rates and other such dubious measures. But whether the website or the interactive game or whatever is actually enhances the brand or is responsible for an increase in sales is mushy stuff. Like cottage cheese, it’s slippery and squishy and it conforms to the container in which it is held.

I celebrate the cottage cheesiness of advertising because, as long as advertising appears to work, or, at least, doesn’t clearly not work, advertisers will advertise (though maybe not in the coming year, given the gloomy forecasts). And you and I will continue getting away with doing what we do.

A penny for your parallel thoughts

2008-10-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

There is a kind of silly movie that came out in September called Eagle Eye. This movie relies heavily on the following device: the protagonist spends much of the movie being directed, via one electronic medium or another, to do this or that by a terrorist cell that has somehow secured control of every electronic network (ATMs, the electricity grid), including networked communication devices like news tickers and other electronic signs used to communicate.

So our hero glances at a news ticker on a building or some such thing, and is instructed to jump off a building or stop a train or whatever, in order to forward the terrorist plot.

The reason this idea of being able to instantly communicate with a single individual out in the world, using whatever medium is in his proximity at any given moment, interests me is that I’ve seen this idea executed by three different parties within the past month.

Here in the Chicago area, the Harris Bank has an ad campaign based on the idea of helpfulness, and has just started running a new set of spots that employs, basically, this same device. In one vignette, a guy bumps into a woman on the street who greets him by name, but he can’t recall her name. At that moment a bus passes by with a poster reading “Her name is Jane” or something to that effect. He reads the sign and greets her by name, thus being saved from an embarrassing moment. Each spot contains three or four of these helpful vignettes, always with signs of some kind providing a critical piece of information in the nick of time.

This month I also spotted a commercial from some other advertiser, the identity of which escapes me, that employs another facsimile of this same device.

Now, for all I know, this idea has been employed in the past by other advertisers. There are, after all, few new ideas. But it’s interesting that all three manifestations of the same device have occurred at virtually the same time.

The fact that all three popped up at the same time tells me that none of these three ripped the idea off from one of the others. This is not an example of bandwagon-jumping. It is, instead, just the most recent example of parallel thought, a phenomenon that most anyone who’s been in this business for any length of time, has experienced.

Being the victim of parallel thought can be very exasperating. How often have you presented an idea to your CD or a client, just to have essentially that same idea show up on TV or the web or whatever, sending you back to the drawing board?

What I’d like to know, but so far have no clue about, is exactly how this happens. Is it, in fact, pure co-incidence, because there are so many ideas being released into our culture at any given time that, inevitably, every now and then, two or three iterations of the same idea are bound to surface more or less simultaneously? What are the odds? I’d really like to know.

Or is there some other process at work, where by the probability of the occurrence of certain kinds of ideas is increased according to the nature and flow of our collective cultural conversation? Or is there some other organizing principal at work?

I have to think that some of you out there have given this phenomenon some thought. Any theories?

Sadly, not beckoned

2008-09-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

I feel compelled to react to Littlejohn’s most recent post, in which he points a big arrow to Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s latest project to make a film comprised of “lovely things” submitted by everyone so inclined.

I checked out the short film chronicling the event that inspired or kicked off this larger film project. At first, it did my hippie heart good, watching this charming story of an event that she caused last August in Millennium Park in Chicago.

But that hippie heart of mine has always been sort of half-hearted. I just can’t reconcile it with the darker part of me that finds emptiness, folly and/or hubris in most human undertakings. That part of me promptly filed Ms. Rosenthal’s project in the same bin where I store so many silly sentiments that pop up in our culture. Make love, not war. Music can change the world. Stuff like that.

It is refreshing, I suppose, and surprising, to come across such an innocent and optimistic enterprise. But, as a citizen of the ugly real world, I find my self backing away from the sentiment.

Maybe it’s a guy thing. Maybe I am terminally cynical. Maybe I’m old. Maybe it’s because, as I now realize, “lovely” isn’t in my vocabulary.

Whatever the reason, I just can’t bring myself to join this lovelyfest. My loss, no doubt.

I wish the project and its originator well, but I must recuse myself.

The Beckoning of Lovely.

2008-09-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

In advertising, we get to make a lot of stuff: videos, posters, websites, widgets, booklets, characters, sometimes even new inventions. Making stuff is my favorite part of advertising. I think it's most people's favorite part. But it's rare that we ever get to make something that one would describe as lovely. Clever, funny, smart, fresh, innovative, these are the words that most often describe what we do. And sure, advertising has its lovely moments (Cog, Balls, Halo). But when was that last time you made something truly Lovely?

Amy Krouse Rosenthal is an Author, former "Ad Girl" and a skilled maker of stuff (you can see 17 things she made here.) Her latest project is a film called The Beckoning of Lovely. And she wants to use all the lovely things you've made to make it. Music, short films and videos, art, stories, lists, monologues, poems, sand castles, whatever it is you're making, if it's lovely, she wants it.

So, ad friends, this your chance to make something lovely, anything, and then, like we do in the ad biz, share it with the world. But this time you'll be making and sharing something, for the sake of sharing. A lovely thought indeed.

Watch how the Beckoning of Lovely project got started here.

And when you're ready to submit your lovely thing, go to whoisamy.wordpress.com

I’m Joe Blow and I approve this message.

2008-09-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Now that this silly waste of time has become well-established in political advertising, let’s take a moment to examine it.

I guess its original intent was to help viewers distinguish between an official commercial from the candidate and a commercial from some group supporting that candidate, but not sanctioned or financed by him. Some of these wacky groups can get even more irresponsible in their messages than the candidates themselves, so this “claimer” has now become mandatory in order to be clear just where the misleading advertising is coming from.

If politics were a “for-profit” endeavor, I assure you that they would have found a simpler, more efficient way to accomplish this task, rather than burning three-to-five precious seconds of a 30-second spot. For example, a simple seal of approval of some sort could appear in the corner, taking up no time.

But, for now, those who make these commercials are stuck with this stupid declaration.

SELF-CONGRATULATORY MOMENT:

I was asked to work on a political spot last spring. I’d like to think I was the first person it occurred to, to embrace this mandatory, rather than just having the candidate say it as quickly as possible. But I probably wasn’t. But I’m laying claim to the idea anyway, until someone else disowns me of the honor.

I figured, if the candidate has to speak the words, why not give the words more weight, more reason for being there. Make USE of the statement rather than treating it like evil legal copy (even though that’s what it is.)

I thought it might be nice to hear from the candidate WHY he approved the message. And maybe in the process, underscore his message, thus wringing a little bit of value out of it.

Otherwise, cynical viewers might tend to assume the worst. I know, when watching one of these spots, I often would complete the thought, in my own head, with something like this:

“My name is Joe Blow and I approve this message because I think that it has a good chance of pushing some emotional button with lots of you bozos out there, even if I know perfectly well that it’s misleading, exaggerated or an outright lie.”

So I wrote a script in which the candidate simply asserts, “I approve this message because it’s true.” I thought it would be refreshing to hear the candidate make such a bold claim.

“Hey Marge, did you hear that? This guy is claiming that what he’s saying in his commercial is TRUE! Can he say that? Is that allowed?”

This spot was produced and ran early last spring, prior to a local primary election. I hadn’t heard anyone else ever modify the mandatory in this way up to that point.

Of course, six months later, most of the spots I’m seeing have the candidate expand on the thought, but, invariably, the reason they give for approving the spot doesn’t make sense. All they are doing is using this slot to re-iterate some political blah blah that they “stand for” i.e. “My name is Joe Blow and I approve this message because it’s time to move the country forward.”

That doesn’t really qualify as a reason why he approved the message. In fact,it makes no sense.

I’m just not sure if it doesn’t make sense because the candidate thinks the voting public is too stupid to realize that it makes no sense, or whether the candidate is, himself, too stupid to realize this. I lean toward the latter.

hidden desires

2008-09-16T14:33:00.001-07:00

I only have time for a quick post today to point you to a fascinating documentary (The Century of the Self) about Freud's theories and their influence on politics, marketing, advertising, and how we as people consume products. I'm embedding part 2 of 4 (all available free on Google Video), but this segment talks about the beginning of focus groups and the influence psychoanalysis has had on marketing.

I'm planning to post more, but my quick take is that Freud's theories show how easily we can be manipulated and the power of persuasion, but they don't suggest that we are merely driven by irrational, subconscious forces (as he thought). Although we do need to be more aware of why we do what we do (as consumers), and companies should be more honorable in how they *attempt* to manipulate, I don't think we are merely ruled by subconscious forces. I think we can, through practice, become more aware of our (so called) hidden desires.

Video sent via Vast and grand, monumental.

Beg High The Roof Beam

2008-09-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

In advertising, it’s important to have a grasp of how and why language is used, so that we can use it appropriately and effectively with whichever audience we are having a conversation. To that end, it’s important to monitor the ever changing meanings of various words and phrases. Here’s an example I’ve noticed lately that may prove instructive.

More and more often we are hearing people use the phrase, “begs the question.”
The rise of the use of this phrase coincides with the frequency with which it is “misused.” To beg the question means, or used to mean, “to assume that which your argument is trying to prove.” This phrase has been commonly used in philosophical discourse and other contexts of scholarly argument.

Today “beg the question” has come to mean, “raise the question.”

Why? What is gained by replacing the phrase, ”raises the question” with the phrase “begs the question”? They denote precisely the same thing. Nothing is gained, in terms of communication effectiveness, by saying “begs the question” rather than “raises the question.”

Yet, more and more, this substitution is being made, led largely by the news media. This development, and countless other similar developments in our constantly changing language, are almost universally mourned, if not reviled, by the self-appointed defenders of the English language, who I call “language zealots.”

This raises the question, “Why?”

The meanings of words and phrases are regularly modified by people using them to mean other than what they had previously meant, even if it doesn’t seem to add to our ability to communicate, and often, in fact, diminishes that ability. Often this change is motivated, ironically, by a person’s desire to sound smart or sophisticated or learned or whatever. I think that is motivation provides a partial explanation for why “raise the question” is becoming “beg the question.”

What I think the zealots are missing is that, at least as regards modern American English, there is another, more fundamental and universal need or motivation. Many American English speakers have need or desire for novelty. We have a strong tendency to evolve, modify, distort, vary bits of language, simply for the sake of novelty.
Why there exists this irrepressible need for novelty, at least in our culture, is a question for someone else to answer. My guess is that there is some kind of cultural ADD behind it. Whatever the reason, judging by the manner and rate at which English evolves, the need is clearly there.

Is this need less “important” than the need for clarity, stability, richness in language? I would say the people have spoken and the answer is no.

BegRecognizing and understanding this need for novelty in language is a useful insight because it provides us with one more lever, one more way to please, entertain, engage our audience. If we use this tool intentionally, rather than unconsciously, we can use it more effectively.

superb insight

2008-09-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

I found this ad for Meetup.com to be spot-on regarding the people they are targeting.

They are targeting people that spend a lot of time on the Internet, but are likely a bit self
conscious about that fact. They like the Ineternet, but cherish face-to-face connections
with people.

And, the humor of updating multiple social networks so that friends know our status at all
time juxtaposed with the simplicity of face-to-face conversation is powerful.

This positions meetup.com well as the company that uses the Internet to help people get off

the Internet.

Don’t give thanks.

2008-08-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

How often have we seen commercials, usually from local or regional businesses, which consist, at least in part, in showing real customers, or pretend real customers, coming right out and thanking the advertiser?

The most visible campaign of this sort, at least in my neck of the woods, is the endless campaign by Buy Owner. Every spot is riddled with happy folks chirping “Thanks, Buy Owner” for their good fortune in saving that real estate broker’s commission.

So what, exactly, is wrong with an advertiser doing ads consisting of customers thanking them? After all, there is an entire, rich tradition of using customer testimonials in which people praise the advertiser, presumably in their own words. This sort of advertising, while looked down on by those ad denizens who patrol advertising’s outer reaches, can be very effective, and can be artfully executed, telling engaging human stories and revealing glimpses of genuine human emotion.

I don’t find testimonials, per se, repugnant. I do find “Thank you, me” ads repugnant. What’s the difference?

I think it has to do, at least partially, with how easy and empty the latter is. A good testimonial requires some effort in finding a real person who has a real story, a story of some interest, and getting that person to relate that story, wrapped in some credible genuineness. And we LEARN something from the story, hopefully something positive about the advertiser, and perhaps about the customer as well.

“Thanks, Buy Owner” and the like involve no effort, give us no glimpse into who the person is who is parroting this empty sentiment. “Thank you”, after all, is something that any satisfied customer could presumably say to any company whose product or service he purchased. It doesn’t tell us anything more than that the company has some happy customers. This fact applies to every business that remains in business. So it isn’t interesting. It tells us nothing.

Even if the “thank you” is preceded by a story that does reveal something good or interesting about the advertiser, punctuating the story with the most obvious, heavy-handed, self-congratulatory words possible tells us that this company and/or its ad agency are devoid of any shred of understanding about their customers, about how to speak to them respectfully, about how to catch people’s interest, engage them or motivate them.

It is as transparently shameless as advertising gets.

Other than that, it’s a fine approach.

Thanks, Advertising For Peanuts reader.

ads ARE NOT the new online tip jar

2008-08-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

Recently I read this post from Seth Godin and, unlike usual, I disagreed. Here's the crux of his argument,

If every time you read a blog post or bit of online content you enjoyed you clicked on an ad to say thanks, the economics of the web would change immediately. You don't have to buy anything (though it's fine if you do). You just have to honor the writer by giving them a click.

It's not often that I disagree with Seth and I'm hesitant to do so because his insight has inspired me and helped me develop my own thoughts on marketing and advertising, but alas I must.

To me the suggestion that banner ads are the new online tip jar only reinforces the fact that online advertising (and perhaps all of advertising) is very broken and in need of innovation. And, by treating ads as online tip jars, we are complying with the broken model, costing advertisers money, which in turn will theoretically drive up the cost of their product. Not good.

Instead, we should do two things:

Create more innovative advertising solutions, perhaps like the one Avenue A and Pluck recently unveiled, called Adlife. Adlife allows people to comment within the ad on the ad itself or the product as well as rate the ad and product and upload pictures or videos.
Create an actual online tip jar that is as easy as clicking on an ad, and allows people to show their support for the content they read for free.

Olympic Advertising: Who Won?

2008-08-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

The 2008 summer Olympics Games are almost over. It was among the most watched - if not the most watched - in the history of the games.

So who won?

I liked some of the United spots. But what were your favorites?

Please nominate the gold, silver, and bronze ad winners in the comments below and tell us why you liked the spots too.

After all, the champions of advertising should be recognized too! Right?

AmeriCrap

2008-08-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

I hereby proclaim a permanent ban on names that start with Ameri-.

AmeriTrade, AmeriPrise., AmeriShred, Amerigroup, AmeriFab, AmeriLine, AmeriSource, AmeriSeal, Ameritech, AmeriTec, AmeriCure, AmeriKing, AmeriCart, AmeriCrew, AmeriLog, AmeriCrew, AmeriTel, AmeriKiwi (?), AmeriLoo, AmeriClay, AmeriGas, and on and on.

First of all, since there are what, hundreds, or thousands of names sharing this same empty prefix, they’re all guilty of no imagination. Since the prefix is ubiquitous, it is also meaningless and powerless.

And considering that Ameri- can attach itself to any word starting with a consonanant, how clever is it.

There is simply no reason to resort to this cheap pander. Do the people responsible for choosing the name at these companies really believe that they are conveying anything useful by having the name start with Ameri-? Would anyone choose your brand over a competitors because it has part of the word “American” in it?

Does “Ameri-“ signal that your company is exceptionally patriotic? Or that it’s not a local, regional, or, for that matter, global company, but operates strictly within the boundaries of the United States. What about the rest of North America? Or South America, for that matter?

If you’re hoping to be listed first in any alphabetically determined contexts, I recommend AAAATrade, AAAAPrise, etc., rather than Ameri-.

The only justification I will accept for using this prefix in a brand name is if there’s something clever about it. For example, a company that sold sexual devices might call itselfAmeri-Tal Aids, or a company that made amusement park rides could choose Ameri-Go Rounds. Or for that matter, a company that made cans could . . . well, you get the idea.

But really, there’s just no good reason to slap Ameri- in front of the name of the category of product or service you provide and declare it a name. And many, many reasons not to.

So stop it.

Is wordsmithing passé in this experiential age?

2008-08-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

I have accepted that proofreading has been devalued almost out of existence. I mourn its passing, but clearly spelling, grammar and punctuation are not the details that our culture, and this industry, choose to fret over any more. As long as its close enough that you get the idea, that’s sufficient.

But what about that careful crafting of language that we used to call “wordsmithing”?

As everything continues to accelerate, one of the tradeoffs we seem to be making in the pursuit of immediacy, freshness and so forth, is the thoughtful, well-considered construction of our communications. The idea itself, however germinally or sloppily expressed, has become more important than the most powerful or evocative articulation of the idea. When we have an idea, the task is now to express the idea as quickly as we can, in the first passably acceptable way that we can find. We settle for coherence, seldom holding out for finesse, nuance, dare I say, perfection.

Example: Those of you who call yourselves copywriters out there, when you write a headline, a banner ad, or some other one line articulation of your client’s message, once you come up with the idea, how much time do you spend on getting the exact articulation of your thought just right? Days? Hours? Minutes? Do you force yourself to write down two hundred, or even two dozen, variations in the quest to find the most compelling set of words? Or do you go with the first one that seems pretty good?

I know I’m guilty of caving into the pressures of time that have contributed to the erosion of wordsmithing. Where I once would have spent a full day sweating over a short paragraph of copy, I now spend, at most, half that amount of time. I’d like to think it’s because I’ve gotten better at my craft and work more efficiently these days. But, while that may be true, it’s just as true that I simply don’t work as hard, or as long, at the wordsmithing thing as I once did. No value is placed on my doing so, except by me, and I’m easily talked out of bothering, because I am a slug.

The ubiquity of email, text messaging and blogs has contributed mightily to this decline. It’s all about getting it down and getting it off to the recipient, rather than getting it just right.

Here’s another factor I’ve identified that I think is contributing to the waning of wordsmithing. As clients and agencies demand ideas of an interactive/engaging/experiential nature, the pressure is to come up with “experiential hooks”, which don’t demand such carefully crafted articulation. The heat is off, wordsmithing-wise. It is less the job of the words themselves to engage, involve, grab attention, and more the job of the experiential device.

This is an inevitable consequence of advertising’s shift to the interactive world of the web, and away from the more passive media—TV, radio, print.

For those of us who are better at words than experientials, it is a worrisome shift.

the most inneffective ads that work

2008-08-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

It is interesting that the most ineffective ads (search links) are coveted for being so effective. But imagine if someone just asked for a car ad and then a car ad appeared; that car ad would be very effective. So really search ads probably aren't all that effective outside of the intent people infuse into the process while searching on google, yahoo, etc.

So what's the lesson we can learn from search?

align with people's intentions
don't interrupt what people want
give people the ability to explore
surrender control
don't horde people's time; instead push them toward their interests
simplicity often works (a simple text link)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that search ads are effective. I'm saying that we misinterpret their effectiveness. The intent people bring to the search process is what makes search ads effective.

Keeping commitments in the ad business

2008-08-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

It’s now 10:15. After more than a month away from Advertising for Peanuts due to a variety of reasons, I had made a commitment to myself to write a post for tonight.

But I am still at my computer working on another project. Something that has to get done. It’s on a deadline. And it helps pay my bills.

My day started wide open. More than enough time to do both.

But then I had to put out a few fires.

And then a few more.

I also had a few meetings.

And, of course, a few calls to return.

Not to mention a few emails.

And now in the evening, I can finally get to the first scheduled task of the day, the project I mentioned earlier.

But now I also have a conflict because, as I said, I made a personal commitment to come up with a column for tonight.

I am not writing this to complain.

I am writing this as a set up to two questions: How often does this happen to you—i.e., how often do portions of your day job get pushed to the night—and what do you do about it, especially when you have another commitment?

Please let me know. Advertising is an industry that puts huge time demands on us, demands that can often interfere with outside commitments. So how do you keep those outside commitments and keep your clients? Thoughts? Please, let’s get the discussion going. Just click on comments below to start.

Another disingenuous dancing alert

2008-08-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of summer reruns, I’d like to reprise one of my pet peeves for a moment. Among all the contrived, non-credible behaviors we see portrayed in advertising, I find the “breaking out into dance because I’m so pleased with such and such a product” thing to be among the most reprehensible.

Because dancing can be so wonderfully expressive and joyful when it’s genuine, it’s that much more repugnant when the dancing is false.

There is a lot of behavior in advertising that would never take place in real life. This if fine, as long as the ad makes it clear that the advertiser is taking license—that there is a clear, mutual understanding that they aren’t pretending to replicate real life.

It is the advertising that attempts to represent some semblence of real life behavior that usually fails miserably. Generally, what we experience is simply the advertiser’s wishful thinking about how reality goes. “If only people, upon discovering my wonderful product, would really beam, or eagerly tell others, or be inspired to break out into a celebratory dance. Maybe if I portray this scenario in my advertising, it will somehow make it so in reality . . .”

What compels me to return to this topic again and again is that it keeps happening. We, the creative community, seem incapable of learning this lesson.

I am hearby issuing citations to three advertisers and their ad agencies for recent crimes against dancing credibility:

Aleve

Jello

(Though this, I concede, is a grey area, because sometimes the wiggly dancing represents the fun nature of the product, but in recent executions, the dancing seems to cross the line into characterizing the reactions of presumably real people)

Yo Plus

During the decade or so of diatribes against disingenuous dancing that I’ve produced, I must have cited at least a score of examples, starting, if I recall, with the notorious Senekot commercials in which old people who’ve returned to regularity dance with joy to a wincingly diluted arrangement of the James Brown tune “I Feel Good.”

There has been no letup recently. In fact, if anything, the frequency with which creatively bankrupt advertisers and their agencies have been resorting to this desperate, empty device, has been increasing.

Please, I implore you, whoever you are, desist with the disingenuous dancing.

advertising as content (revisited)

2008-07-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Back in March I wrote about the possibility for banner ads to carry content (i.e. The Office episodes), not ads. Back then I had this to say:

Picture this scenario: you are browsing yahoo news and you notice an ad that says something like, "Did you miss the last episode of The Office? Click here to watch it". You click on the ad and a player pops out and starts playing the episode of The Office that you missed. You can either watch the entire episode in full screen or leave it on in the background as you continue to browse the web.

This seems like a winning scenario. It's useful to consumers, the Studios get folks watching their programming and they make money off of every view, and advertisers make it all happen by running a few ads during the content.

I then stated that Hulu was closest to making this a reality with their "embed" functionality, where people can take an episode of a show, a movie, or a clip and embed it on their blog, website, etc, which allows the content AND the advertising to go beyond a static website.

Well, it now appears that Google is also attempting to make this scenario a reality. In a recent press release Google announced that they will be partnering with Seth MacFarlane to distribute his newest creation, Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. The way they will do this is what is most interesting as they will be distributing the content across the Internet using Google's Ad Sense Network. So instead of needing to visit a website to view the content, the shows can be viewed from some of the most popular blogs around the Internet in the same place as where the ads are usually displayed.

This is interesting to me and raises a few questions:

Will people pay attention to this new form of advertising / content distribution?
Do people want to watch shows or clips as they visit / read their favorite blogs?
Will they allow themselves to be interrupted?
Will this cause more people to pay attention to the ad space on websites, rather than ignore it?
Will the episodes carry ads with them or be advertising free?
Will Google allow people to view the episodes in full-screen or embed it on other sites?

I'm sure there are many more questions, but this is a start.

Creativity vs. Co-optivity

2008-07-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

This is a larger topic than this post has room to do justice to. The question I raise is not a new question in the arenas of art, popular culture and commerce. When artists, and I’ll use this term broadly enough to include rap/hip hop artists and even “advertising artists”, borrow or pay homage to or include a reference to the content of another piece of art, or include the actual piece of art, as happens very often in music, particularly rap music, and as also happens constantly within advertising, is this creativity? Or is it simply what I term “co-optivity”?

Of course, as is maddeningly true of any question of this sort, we immediately sink into a dark grey semantic sinkhole—what do we mean by “borrow”, “creativity” and so forth?

And the answer, if there even is one, will wind up somewhere in the middle, and totally case-dependent.

Nevertheless, the question bears asking because the simple act of raising the question may help quell the everpresent tendency to cross whatever the line is between borrowing and stealing, between paying homage and plagiarism, and ultimately, between creativity and co-optivity.

Let’s consider just two old examples that I can’t seem to shake:

Beck has a song called “Devil’s Haircut” from the Odelay CD, which is built on the defining riff of an obscure song by Van Morrison’s formative band, Them. It’s not just built on the riff, however, it is built on a faithful reconstruction of that riff, as it was executed in the Them song, fuzz guitar and all. Beck took a key piece of another artist’s work and created a different song built on this same piece. Never mind the legalities, how much of another artist’s work are you allowed to steal, and how little do you need to change it, and still be able to claim that it is your creation?

While he didn’t sample the actual recording, such sampling is a common practice, and while these samples are often used as seasoning for some musical piece, there are those who compose songs around them, which is just taking what Beck and many others have done one step further.

Last night I heard a musical piece by a “mashup” artist with the moniker, “Girl Talk”, in which he peppers his composition with several samples of others’ work, each playing a fairly prominent role. I didn’t recognize all of the samples, but his composition begins by leaning heavily on a sample of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’”. So here we have an entire musical genre, or sub genre, that feeds shamelessly off the creativity of others, pretending to share authorship.

The textbook example of co-optivity in advertising is when the Budweiser creatives at DDB Chicago lifted the characters and schtick from an independent film and more or less re-created them for the purpose of selling Bud. The “Whassup” campaign was critically acclaimed and showered with accolades. It was as if these creatives had actually thought of the idea or something. Is this what creativity in advertising consists of? The audacity of theft?

Advertising seems to be increasingly Simpsonized, where the power of advertisements relies on pop cultural references, which is a practice that already skirts the edge of co-optivity. But when allegedly creative people don’t simply make a reference, but, rather, resort to ripping out entire chunks of someone else’s creation and claim them as their own, how is it creative?

I loathe intellectual dishonesty, especially when it’s not me doing it. And I submit that co-optivity is inherently intellectually dishonest.

I told you that this topic is too large to do justice to here.

inverse relationship

2008-07-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

I have a theory. I'm not sure whether it matters, but I find it a bit funny and potentially true.

Tom's theory:

companies that are hiring ad agencies to help them "innovate", or become more "digital", are companies that are doomed to insignificance and lackluster performance

whereas

companies that are hiring ad agencies to help them create advertisements are companies that are innovative, significant and delivering a superior product or service

It is all very counter-intuitive and ironic, but I think it's true.

Collateral Damage

2008-07-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Let’s make a list of things that have been ruined forever by advertising, shall we?

Talking animals;

Countless pieces of great music, from pop to classical, most recently, Daydream Believer;

Talking babies. Granted the Etrade baby is, at times, inspired, nevertheless, the whole talking baby shtick is toast;

Our respect for artists who prostitute their art by allowing it to be bastvertized, starting with Dylan, the Beatles, The Who, the Rolling Stones, Springsteen, and we haven’t even touched on visual artists;

Countless one word punchlines such as:

“What?” (in response to being stared because of having done or said something stupid or outrageous)

“Dude.”

Children talking like adults;

Impossibly clueless people who are dumbfounded or rendered speechless by the news of a benefit of some product or service, (see the new National City Bank campaign.);

Many special effects and other manipulations of reality. For example,

morphing;

abrupt changes back and forth between normal speed to fast motion to slow motion;

Large objects (cars, pianos, wrecking balls, etc.) falling unexpectedly into frame, crushing a person, a car, whatever.

The credibility of many iconic cultural figures, when they become aadvertising pitchmen, i.e. Robert DeNiro. Bob Dylan, Spike Lee, Bill Curtis,

This, surely, only scratches the surface of stuff that advertising has beaten to death, thus severely diminishing or outright ruining the original intended effect, along with stuff like great art, music etc., that simply ought not to be cheapened/diminished/ prostituted for the purpose of selling banking services, soda pop and so forth.

I invite you to add to this list. It’s not only good therapy, but it might turn into a useful list of “don’ts” next time you’re conceptualizing. If we compile a long enough list, it could become a book, in which case we could all split the royalties.

Do something good, jerks!

2008-07-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

Most days we sell crap to people who don't need it. Every now and then we do something good for humanity.

These isolated cases we praise in our industry publications and awards shows. We then get back to our day-to-day grind.

I keep hearing that advertising has some of the brightest people in the world working in it. Theoretically we could change the world.

But, we don't.

A friend of mine here in San Francisco (not an advertising guy) just planned a fund raiser based on people bringing pies and paying a few bucks. It's a simple idea, but it's doing something good. Why don't agencies come up with stuff like that more often? We're brilliant supposedly, why don't we put just a small percentage of our minds towards making the world a better place?

Big praise to Droga5 for setting a good example.

less and more

2008-07-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

--choice is good, but leads to more, which creates complexity
--simplicity is good, but can limit choice, which is undesirable

i suggest choice and simplicity as the model. the tension between the two is helpful in:

creating a strategy
writing copy
art directing
client management
web design
etc.

the phrase less is more should be rewritten to be less and more

In praise of the Dos Equis radio campaign

2008-07-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve praised the Dos Equis “Most interesting man in the world” radio campaign previously. (The TV extension of this campaign is okay, but the radio campaign is the gem.) But I feel compelled to revisit this campaign in light of a couple of new spots I’ve heard recently.

The spots from this campaign are the only radio spots I can recall laughing out loud at in recent memory. Even the “Real Men of Genius” campaign, in its early days, evoked smiles, not out loud laughs from me.

The writer or writers of the Dos Equis spots are funny and inventive in a way that we seldom hear. It’s almost as if whoever the agency is (Euro RSCG? Which office?) put their “A” team on this assignment.

For those who aren’t familiar with the campaign, it consists largely of a series of one liners providing instances of why the most interesting man in the world is the most interesting man in the world, or consequences of being the most interesting man in the world.

Allow me to hopefully not butcher just three of the lines in these current spots that made me laugh. Each line carries an implied “He’s so interesting that . . .” (I’m pulling these from my addled memory, so I may not be precisely word for word):

Alien abductors ask him to probe them.

He is the only man in the world to have aced a Rorschach test.

Many years ago, he built a city out of blocks. Today, 600,000 people live and work there.

As you may be able to tell from this brief list, it is the cumulative effect of several of these grouped together that makes the spots so funny, and, of course, they are meant to be read out loud by the very well cast voiceover guy, rather than read in a blog post.

The reason I’m spending all this time adoring this campaign is that it is a graphic reminder of just how lame and un-funny almost all presumably humorous advertising is. It doesn’t have to make you laugh out loud to be funny, it might simply bring a smile. But SO MUCH of the stuff I see and hear that is intended to be funny is just not. It is failed humor. Humor-like in structure, form and pace. But devoid of actual funny content.

It’s only on the rare occasion when we experience genuinely funny ads that it becomes apparent how bad faux funny advertising (namely, most advertising) is. And how invaluable genuine humor can be to a brand. I’d love to know how Dos Equis sales have been going over the last couple of years. Anybody know?

Open source oops: Timing is everything

2008-07-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

A while back, I wrote about open source advertising. While I had the idea for more than a month (two, actually), I sat on it, because I had other topics that I wanted to write about. But I finally got around to it.

As soon as I published my post on open source advertising, I got a comment that Pepsi was already doing what I had described. Then I got a comment from an individual who had just opened an firm dedicated to providing open source advertising. And, on the following day, I found a recently published book called The Open Brand.

While written in a semi-joking tone to make fun of the conventions of the industry, all three of my points in my article were predictions: a corporate title, a specialized agency, and books (and eventual trade show) keynotes.

If I had published my post when I thought of the idea, I might have been leading the way. Now I was just following fast.

My obvious lesson is don’t sit on an idea—not even for a few weeks. When the time is right, more than one person will get the idea. And just like the rest of advertising, it’s not just the idea; it’s also the execution of the idea. And, it’s how quickly the idea can be executed.

Now if only I could learn my own simple and obvious lesson. After all, I got the idea for this follow up post weeks ago and I am now finally getting around to publishing it. But maybe my failing to post this sooner will remind you to not wait with acting on your ideas.

“Communication is unlikely . . .

2008-06-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

If you get what I’m saying.” -- Chairman Jimmy.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

My post from last week elicited several comments, which was heartening. On the other hand, most of these comments revealed my apparently total failure to communicate the point I was trying to make. I’m trying to view this as an instructive failure.

So where did I go so terribly wrong?

The first and main mistake I made was to assume a shared experience with you, the devoted readers of AFP. As it turns out, either many of you have in fact shared the experience to which I was referring, but I was so cryptic or unclear in alluding to or characterizing this experience that no one had the slightest idea what I was talking about.

Or, the experience I was talking about is not as common as I had assumed.

Or both.

Whichever the case, it has been a very humbling reminder of just how much more careful I need to be about taking into consideration who one’s readers are, what they do, where they’ve been, etc.

I guess the good news is that I’ve never experienced such a total miscommunication before.

Or have I? How would I know?

In any case, to set the record straight, let me try to at least clarify the phenomenon about which I devoted last week’s post.

In my experience, when I’ve gone into a meeting with a creative director, in which my art director partner and I are to present initial concepts for, let’s say, a print ad, sometimes the following takes place.

We show a rough layout, (Remember rough layouts? No? Yikes.), with some visual, a headline, and the client’s logo and tag down at the bottom somewhere.

In critiquing the concept, the CD often reaches into his quiver and pulls out some standard deflating arrow, like, “Um, I feel like I’ve seen this before” or something similar.

Another such arrow, the one about which my whole post was concerned, involves the CD saying, “I feel like if I removed our client’s logo and replaced it with a competitor’s logo, it would work just as well.” The point of this comment being that the concept isn’t distinctly reflective or expressive of our client’s brand voice or look or whatever. It’s too generic.

This arrow, like so many in the CD’s quiver, is totally unhelpful and, in my view, wrong-headed.
If it’s a great ad idea, who cares if a competitor could, hypothetically, have done the ad. The fact is, they haven’t, so it’s available for us to do it for our client.

So, unless the concept carries a particular competitor’s actual brand look, feel, voice, what’s the problem?

See, now my confidence has been so undermined that I feel like I’m still not making myself clear.

It seems as if some of the people who posted comments were mostly responding to the idea of showing a client’s competitor’s logo within the client’s ad, and the value/advisability/effectiveness of this ploy.

Which is a whole different topic, about which I’m not prepared to opine at the moment. Maybe once I get over my despair regarding this recent communication breakdown, I’ll be able to assemble a coherent thought regarding this issue.

from the gut vs. research

2008-06-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

As a researcher I often feel that much of what I do could be accomplished by just going from the gut. Many of the questions I'm asked to answer could (and should) be answered by instinct, not surveys or focus groups.

I know, this is blasphemy coming from someone that actually does research for a living, but I think the first question that a good researcher should ask is, "could I answer this question from instinct much quicker (and cheaper) than conducting research?" At the very least this will help refine any research that is conducted and it may actually replace doing research altogether.

You should try it. It's fun.

If you can put the competition’s logo on the ad . . .

2008-06-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard this rule invoked by dozens of creative directors over the years as grounds to reject a concept. I recommend that this criticism be tossed on the slag heap along with other bogus rules such as the “borrowed interest” prohibition we discussed in an earlier post.

If you were to view every ad currently running in a particular category, without knowing which brands did which ads, there would likely be some ads about which you could easily identify the brand. But most ads would possess a degree of “interchangeability.” Could be a Miller ad. Could be a Bud ad. Could be a Toyota ad. Could be a Nissan ad. Could be LG. Could be Sony. That, by itself, would not make the ad bad. In fact, it could be a great ad, carrying a powerful truth, delivered in a striking manner, consistent with, or at least consonant with, its brand. And yet not be obviously assignable to one and only one brand.

If you have to look for the logo to find out who did the ad, this is no basis for dismissing the ad. In fact, it might be a basis for praise, since it means the viewer of the ad was sufficiently engaged by the ad to take the trouble to wonder whose ad it was.

In most cases, every brand within a category has to choose from among the same finite set of benefits as the other brands in that category. Ideally, what sets a brand apart is the ownership of a certain benefit or combination of benefits, as filtered through their own unique brand voice, face, personality. Unfortunately, this circumstance is rare. Most brands don’t do that good of a job of setting themselves apart. But the fact that a brand has not differentiated itself clearly and unmistakably doesn’t preclude the possibility of producing a great ad for that brand. Even if, were you to swap out logos and taglines, that same ad could just as easily have come from some other not-very-well-differentiated brand in that same category.

Roar

2008-06-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

With the Cannes Lions happening and everyone struggling to be the first to pat everyone on the back I remembered back to this great clip I saw in one of the "behind-the-scenes" judges videos for what I believe was D&AD. They're going around and asking the judges what they think of the work, etc and everyone says "oh it's great it's so fantastic to see all the innovative blah blah blah". And then they get to a guy from Kesselskramer and ask him. And he in essence says that there's nothing impressive or new and that it's basically the same stuff they always see. It made me really glad he was a judge, because if he votes on something, I know it's good.

"Skip the pun"? Not so fast.

2008-06-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

As Sally Fields once pointed out, “’Pun’ spelled backwards is “nup,” and a nup is a nup.

I appreciate the point that Tom Tom made about looking beyond, or beneath, the pun, is his post of June 12.

However, in searching for the deeper thought underlying the pun, As Tom Tom rightly advocates, we mustn’t dismiss or ignore or sell short the value that a good pun itself brings.

Before I explain, let me first make an impassioned plea. Can we call them “plays on words” rather than “puns”, please? I’m not trying to euphemize here. It’s just that the word “pun” is so hopelessly burdened with connotations of cheap-and-easiness, groaning corniness, etc., the stigma precludes any credible defense of this device itself.

Here are two reasons I would not be so quick to encourage simply moving past the play on words to find the deeper, perhaps more compelling thought that underlies that play.

First, in our business, there is a lot of value placed on economy of words, as well as on the ability of those words to interrupt, disrupt, draw attention, and engage the reader. The fact is, sometimes the play on words is unbeatably economical, because in letting it play on two meanings, both of which are germaine to the message, you have one headline (or whatever) doing the work of two. I think of it as two barbed hooks sinking into different points in the brain.

Second, because it cleverly plays on two meanings, the headline catches the eye and the brain and makes the reader think about it for a second, netting you a pretty dang effective headline. It’s possible that there is a deeper, more substantial thought that anchors this play on words, but if it takes two lines to express that thought, it may not be worth the tradeoff. Or it may be.

My point is, let’s not assume that the play on words will always be the lesser option.

One last thought. As with most everything else, the industry-wide disdain for plays on words is based, not on the play on words per se, but rather, on all the badly executed plays on words out there. The fact is, most are obvious, not really funny or clever, off message or in some other way deeply flawed and inadequate. Very often the brilliant play on words is not even seen as such because everyone’s too busy admiring the thought that it doesn’t occur to anyone to credit the play on words as the source of that thought.

I join Tom Tom in lamenting the reality that creative directors are, as a group, predisposed to trash the play on words out of hand. But I think this is all the more reason to confront the CD with great plays on words anytime you work hard enough to uncover one.

What Teaching Teaches

2008-06-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

By Timothy Delaney

An MRI of a typical creative person’s brain would no doubt reveal a highly developed right lobe (that’s the intuitive side) and a somewhat atrophied left lobe. Most great advertising is not arrived at logically, but through a series of random leaps. For the typical ad geek the left lobe is reserved not for statistics and spreadsheets but for TV theme songs, film dialog and the names of ‘70’s rock bands. An art director might have a few Photoshop tricks stored in there but that’s about it. For creatives the right lobe is our bread and butter, where ideas, art and all other worthwhile things come from. Left-brain stuff is reserved for the suits. But every once in a while that half does come in handy.

A while back I was invited to teach an advertising course at Columbia College Chicago. I had taught portfolio classes in the past, where you give eager students assignments and get to play creative director. But this was different. The course was Introduction to Advertising and was meant for marketing students. I accepted the challenge, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Columbia College Chicago is a bona fide learning institution, with grades, evaluations and a teachers union. My students were not just creatives, but also included the clients of tomorrow. This course was to involve real information, not just opinion. And each class was nearly three hours long.

But there is a wealth of advertising related content out there waiting to be tapped. Books by Luke Sullivan, Pat Fallon, and my own friends Mark Silveira, Pat Hanlon and Larry Minsky function as our textbooks. The ad columns in the New York Times and the Sun Times provide weekly grist for discussion. And of course there’s YouTube. Anything the least bit noteworthy or just downright stupid in the broadcast world finds its way to YouTube in a nanosecond.

And there is also my own vast experience. My history stretches back to the Paleolithic era on the advertising timeline. I started out at Scale, McCabe, Sloves in New York working for the guys that pretty much invented the business. Not exactly “Mad Men” but close. I recall seeing the archetypal Maxell guy in the chair as a comp on a presentation board. I have spent time in Ed McCabe’s hot tub. I’ve witnessed Joe Sedelmaier verbally abusing talent. So when things slow down after about 90 minutes (and they often do) I can usually pull a great story out of my murky past. Accounts of in office drug abuse and debauchery go over particularly well

And more often than not, I learn from my students. These kids are not trust fund slackers. Many speak English as a second language. All of them work during the day. And although I had to explain who Mr. Whipple was, they are very tuned into pop culture, both past and present. So I don’t have to subject myself to VH1 to know what’s hip.

The net result is a fair exchange between student and teacher. They challenge me to regurgitate everything I’ve learned about this wacky business.

And in return, I get to feel like I actually know something.

Timothy Delaney is an art director who runs his own freelance creative services firm. He has won One Show, CA, Chicago Show, and various other awards. His most recent essay, prior to this one, appeared in The New York Times.

Skip the Pun

2008-06-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am not anti-pun. I find that, on occasion, I actually enjoy them and that they are the right answer. However, I've also found that behind most pun-lines, there's are real lines trying to get out.

When you find yourself looking at a pun that just seems too good to be true, scratch it out and keep writing. More often than not, the reason the pun works is because there's actually something truer and deeper to your concept. There will be a brilliant line that accomplishes the same thing you thought only the pun could. The deeper thought. And when you find it, it'll feel damn good. And suddenly you'll realize how much smarter your ad feels.

Plus, the entire industry is so pun-phobic that you can now safely show that piece to a creative director who read somewhere that puns are bad and thus won't even look at an ad that has a pun in it. In advertising rules are meant to be broken. Just not that rule.

The Soundtrack of my Copy

2008-06-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but music plays a large role in my creative process. Not so much in the concpeting stage, when my partner and I are batting around ideas. But when it comes down the the brass tacks of banging out some long copy or a couple dozen TV scripts or a few pages of headlines etc., for a meeting, I turn to my iTunes library and select the genre of zone I'd like to be in. And I've noticed, the music I select can have a profound effect on my productivity.

First off, I don't listen to music with lyrics or singing. Because the words I'm hearing tend to muddle with the words I'm thinking of in my head, and it becomes far to distracting. I'll suddenly realize I have been thinking of animals being let out of a zoo for the last 15 minutes and I haven't written a word. So that limits my copywriting listening to instrumental rock, hip-hop beats, classical, indie instrumentals, and some electronic stuff.

Secondly, the energy of the music I select is crucial to the quality and especially the quantity of work I can do. If it's late and I need to really kick it in gear I throw on some Ratatat or Hemsted, maybe The Go! Team. Something that gets the blood pumping. If I'm settling into a long session I usually turn to some beats like Yesterdays New Quintet, Madlib's "Beat Konduct in India," Bonobo, DJ Alibi, and instrumentals by the likes of MF Doom and Quasimoto. This stuff puts me into a loop-like copywriting trance. And then sometimes If I'm feeling distracted and unfocused I turn the lights down low and ease into some Tchaikovsky, or Papa M, or Rachel's or Calexico anything that sucks me into the computer screen.

And lastly, I've recently noticed that listening to music that sounds like the brand I'm working has a surprisingly significant positive impact on my writing. If music I'm spinning sounds like it could be the soundtrack to the TV spot I'm writing, the words just seem to flow faster and more fluid on the page. So if it's a young, hip brand I try to listen to something that feels youthful and energetic. If it's a mature brand I listen to something that has some weight and sophistication to it. Try it, you'll see what I mean.

But I'm curious. What do you guys listen to when you write, art direct or brand strategies? How does music play into your creative process. Because I could use some fresh tunes in the old copywriting repertoire.

how do you define advertising?

2008-06-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Princeton defines advertising

"as the business of drawing public attention to goods and services."

Is that how you define advertising? Is that how you think of your job?

Lest We Forget

2008-06-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

[Given the title, there is, I suppose, irony in the fact that I posted the following rumination earlier today, having forgotten that I had posted it once already in May. Both my memory and my filing system failed me. Fortunately, Littlejohn had my back, and dutifully pointed out my blahgaffe. I've decided to leave this post intact for three reasons. First, as Prince reminds us, "There's joy in repetition. There's joy in repetition. There's joy in repetition." Second, within this post I suggest that we remind ourselves daily of the savviness of consumers. So it might make sense for me to remind us monthly to remind ourselves daily. Perhaps I'll post this thing again in July. Third, I added something to the close of this post. Maybe not qualitatively. but quantitatively. So let's let it stand.]

Here’s the thing. At least in the realm of most consumer advertising, when a person experiences an ad, it’s a brief moment, a tiny drop in the stream of their consciousness. They notice the ad, if we’re lucky, and if we’re really lucky, they engage with the ad and maybe even file some kind of positive impression in their head. They may even go to a website or make a call as a result of experiencing the ad. But that’s it. They move on. They don’t think about it any more. They don’t think back to the ad later in the day. They don’t look the ad over with a critical eye. They don’t spend time with it. They don’t start examining each element of the ad. They don’t question the motive of the advertiser. They understand full well that the advertiser will always present their product or service in a positive light. They understand that the advertiser will not denigrate or dis the target. It is safe to assume the person who experiences the ad is smart about advertising. They get the deal. They know their role. They’ve had a lifetime of experience being on the receiving end. They understand what the advertiser is trying to do and why. And, even if they won’t admit it in public, they appreciate, in a small way, being diverted, engaged, entertained and/or informed by a good ad. We would all be well served to remind ourselves and our clients, daily, how unimportant our ad is to the target audience, and how advertising-sophisticated that audience is. Maybe then we’d be more inclined to think beyond, and sell beyond, the obvious, the easy and the vacuous. And not indulge ourselves in silly, unfounded, unreasonable fears to justify killing our most interesting ideas.

It's Tough to Be a Good CD These Days

2008-06-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Our very own AFP contributor Jim Morris has a delightfully controversial column appearing in AdWeek this week. It's about the increasingly difficult job we call Creative Director.
He prepossess several reasons why most CDs are finding themselves in over their heads these days, and here's just a preview.

"I submit that the underlying causes are a combination of corporate laziness and the account service department's collective abrogation of several of its obvious responsibilities. Sadly, the situation is exacerbated by some creative directors' quests for more organizational control.

I would hypothesize that the vicious cycle that spawned this sad state of affairs has gone something like this: Account management people, on average, have become weaker and less capable over the past three decades or more."

You will have to give the full article a read here. And let Chairman Jimmy know what you think. If he's right, perhaps soon we might see Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel at an Ad Agency filming another episode of Dirty Jobs.

how to research without researching

2008-06-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

Step 1: begin (if you aren't already) using a personalized homepage. Many exist: netvibes, iGoogle, pageflakes, etc.

Step 2: track PR by going to google and typing in something you would like to follow. For instance, you may want to follow "digital advertising" or "DVRs" or whatever. Once you click search, look up at the top of the page and click "News". This will filter the search by news articles. Then click RSS and copy and paste the url onto your personalized homepage. This will allow you to track PR on an ongoing basis, and the results automagically update, meaning new articles automatically appear.

Step 3: track consumer sentiment by mining blog comments (via Technorati), and twitter comments. Here's how: go to technorati.com (technorati is a blog search engine) and type in the word or phrase you would like to track, copy the RSS of the results and put it on your personalized homepage. It will also automagically update when new posts are written. Next go to tweetscan.com and type in the word or phrase you want to track, grab the RSS and put it on your personalized homepage.

Step 4: track the experts by finding a few trade publications that matter and grabbing their RSS and placing it on your personalized homepage.

Bonus: if you want to literally see what people are doing related to a topic, go to Tag Galaxy and type in a word or phrase to see all the pictures tagged with that word or phrase on flickr.com.

Keep in mind: This is a great approach, but it is not without its own bias. And, don't track too much or you won't be able to keep up.

Let me know if you have other tips and tricks.

Eek! Entertainment! Eek!

2008-06-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

The new definition of advertising:

n. Entertainment with some commercial message or agenda of some sort in there somewhere.

The industry simply must stop being phobic about unapologetically identifying what we do as entertainment.

I blame David Ogilvy for this affliction. Since his time, the advertising environment, as well as the larger cultural environment in which advertising plays, has changed enough to render many of his tenets about advertising obsolete. Including his jaundiced view of “entertainment value” in advertising.

Clients need to accept that, in today's environment, with consumers having so much choice and so much power to exclude messages that are boring or annoying, advertisers had better embrace not just the value, but the absolute indispensability, of entertainment in their marketing efforts.

Entertainment is a very broad word that doesn't preclude the possibility of effectively incorporating a strategically grounded, persuasive message.

After all, what does entertainment mean?

Entertainment:

n. That which is created in order to amuse, interest, please, divert and/or stimulate an audience.

Surely this is a necessary condition for something to qualify as a “good” ad.

So let’s stop being so dang timid and defensive about recognizing that advertising must be entertaining first, in order for it to accomplish its other goals.

Maybe if we can get over this problem, we can tackle the phobia that so many advertisers, particularly BtoB advertisers have about referring to their funny advertising as “funny.” When I’m selling work to a client, I’m still compelled to draw on my lexicon of euphemisms for “funny” in describing funny concepts. I can call an idea “lighthearted”, “fun”, “friendly”, “good-humored” and so forth. But if I call it funny, the client invariably squirms, and the idea is dealt an oft-fatal blow.

This “funny” problem is a simply a subset of the “entertaining” problem. But for many clients, they will become comfortable with “entertaining” long before they finally embrace “funny.” And it may only be when we can provide objective neuroscieentific evidence of desirable changes in the brain brought on by smiling and laughing (increased endorphins, etc.), evidence that these changes contribute to positive attitudes and intentions toward brands that makes them laugh, that advertisers will see the light.

What’s your favorite ad campaign?

2008-05-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

It’s graduation time for all of you soon-to-be advertising junior copywriters and art directors. So if you have a portfolio that will get you in the door (the first hurdle), it’s time to prepare for that face-to-face discussion. And the headline of this column is a very popular interview question. But it’s amazing the number of aspiring professionals who want to get into the industry can’t name one. It’s also amazing the number of people who work in the industry can’t even name one. But I bet you can. What is it? Please list it in the comments section. If not for me (I always like to know what people like), do it to help all those soon-to-be junior copywriters and art directors. After all, if you don’t tell them what to think, who will?

The basics done well

2008-05-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

This site for Norton is pretty sweet. I love it when something that has typically been dry gets coolified. I can think of few companies that seem more dull and buttoned up than Norton, but here they loosened that top button and started talking human.

I think it's great when companies step off their ivory pedestals and mingle with the commoners. I wish more companies would do it. Then we could understand what the hell they were saying.

listening to people

2008-05-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things to think about the next time you are out listening to people in focus groups, on the street, in their homes, etc.

question their answers: people don't intentionally lie (at least not often), but we will make up answers and say things that will make us sound better than we actually are.

is it just an "easy answer": often we want to answer something just to get it done with which means we don't elaborate as much as we could.

do they know how to answer the question: many questions are tough to answer and need to be asked in a few different ways. if an answer does not make sense, perhaps they did not understand the question.

watch their body language: this is key. most communication is non-verbal. non-verbal communication adds context to verbal communication.

notice their pattern of response: many people are always positive or negative or apathetic. by noticing this, you can understand their response more fully.

understand your own bias: for the most part, it's hard to listen when our own biases are getting in the way. "older people don't get technology", "younger people are hasty", etc. these biases get in the way of actually understanding people for who they are, not who we think they are.

Off Target

2008-05-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Through recent meetings with clients and agency partners I came to the realization that the perspective on how to target a market is still incredibly narrow for most.

For most, if you're targeting a 35 year old tax broker you make an ad that screams "Hey 35 year old tax broker!"But this perspective assumes that a 35 year old tax broker has no aspirations beyond their present existence and no internal vision of who they are.

Consider that in the 80s Wall Street broker scene Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" became popular reading. None of these brokers were on their way into a sword fight, but they could relate based on their vision of themselves as warriors. Thus an ad "targeting" samurai might perform better than an ad targeting a broker sitting at a desk. Even though actual samurai are unlikely to purchase our product.

A more common example is in car commercials where the details given on a car are far too complex for the layman to follow. The layman may be more interested in the car based on the perception that the car was created for the enthusiast who would understand all those things (sort of a "it's what the pros use" perception).

Though it's easy to follow, this thought isn't necessarily intuitive. We need to be careful to close this gap as we present these kind of ideas. Otherwise our clients will think we're idiots selling investment software to ninjas.

The Ramp

2008-05-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

This is some footage shot from a train of a giant ramp that was built in the small German town of Oberpfaffelbachen. The ramp was built with the the intentions of launching a car from Germany into America. There was a documentary made about the ramp, and the town that built it that you can watch here.

Now Please assist me with a little experiment. Look at your clock. What time is it? Now click on the links above. Watch. Explore a bit. Then come back and answer the questions in the comment sections (and no cheating) Thank you.

telling a story vs. joining a story

2008-05-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

It is often said that we as marketers need to tell stories. We need to tell our client's stories and they need to be great. While I don't disagree, I think the more accurate phrase would be that we need to join a story.

Joining a story means tapping into a movement. It means understanding people so well that the product meets their unique needs exactly. When marketers join a story they are a participant. As a participant in a story you let others talk just as much (if not more) than you, and you accept the language and the mood of the already underway story.

This is a subtle difference, but real nonetheless. The psychology of telling vs. joining is completely different.

Telling:

--All about the storyteller
--One sided communication
--Story is potentially unwanted
--Story is, well...a story

Joining:

--All about ALL participants
--Two-way communication
--Story is living and evolving
--The story keeps going when you stop talking

So instead of focusing on telling a story, I suggest we focus on joining a story.

Aren't most advertisers wasting their time and money?

2008-05-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the following ramble is simply the product of the brain-addling isolation of the freelance writer. Am I missing something? Am I stating the obvious? Or the obviously confused? After reading this, kindly let me know. Please point out the glaring flaw in my thinking and put me out of my misery.

Within the universe of consumer products, how many brands are competing, at least locally or regionally, for a slot in their potential consumers’ minds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Surely there is some upper limit to the total number of brands to which one person can feel any allegiance (or any emotion, or any awareness at all, for that matter.)

Isn’t it likely that this upper limit is somewhere in the hundreds? And if that is the case, isn’t it ill-conceived folly for so many companies, especially those with smaller budgets, to be laboring so relentlessly against what will be, for most of them, a futile effort?

If you are a regional manufacturer of some product, let’s say mustard, which is number four in the category, eclipsed by one dominant national number one brand, a perennial national number two and a national number three that is itself barely on consumers’ radar, if at all.

In the absence of some very distinctive, unique benefit, or a dramatic price advantage, what should you, Mr. Mustard, do? How should you be thinking and acting regarding your “brand” (which may not really exist as a brand, to the extent that “brand” is defined as an impression in the minds of consumers?)

I don’t mean to go all Marketing 101 on you here. The point I’m trying to make is that, for many, possibly most, consumer products out there, the idea of using consumer advertising to create a brand in the minds of their target is pure folly, isn’t it? There’s just no room at the inn.

The vast number of products vying for attention vs. the number of brands any one person can hold in his/her head makes this conclusion inevitable. Doesn’t it?

I know that a lot of these products, wisely, never even bother with consumer advertising. But many, many others squander their budgets year after year, on the naïve hope that somehow they can break through. And this is a delusion that most ad agencies are more than happy to encourage. In fact, many agencies live or die on the (naïve? Self-deluded?) aspirations of the world’s struggling number three’s and four’s.

Is it wrong for agencies to behave this way, given the extreme improbability of success? Or does the free enterprise system require such tilting at windmills? Once in a blue moon, a brand defies the odds (usually due entirely to some brilliant advertising) and advertises itself into minds and homes of its target. But for every success story like that, think how many millions of dollars are wasted every year by all those other companies whose products try but fail to rise to the level of a bona fide brand in their targets’ brand-finite minds.

Make Room For Thinking

2008-05-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

Sweet vindication. I have long maintained that the bigger the room you’re in, the more able you are to think expansively, and the bigger the ideas you can create. I suspect this contention of mine has been seen by many as naïve, simplistic, and just my lame excuse to get out of the office or cubicle or whatever confined space I’m inhabiting at the moment. But the truth will out.

A recent study has confirmed what I have been saying. It concludes that, when you think in a room with a higher ceiling, you are inclined to “freer, more abstract thinking”, whereas, in a room with a lower ceiling, the tendency is to think smaller and focus on details. So there. Ha. (Obviously, I write these posts in a very tiny room.)

This study did not test that ultimate high ceiling—the out of doors—so the jury’s still out on that environment. But from now on, when I try to explain why I must run off to the nearest big mall food court or library to get some thinking done, I’ll be armed with at least one shred of evidence that my need to seek out an expansive setting is not pure folly.

Have you found this to be true, that you think better or bigger when you’re in a bigger room? I’m curious how common this phenomenon is.

new language of marketing

2008-05-11T22:05:00.001-07:00

lets start a new language for marketing. i find that the way that i speak about my job influences how i do my job. that is why i want to start a new marketing lexicon. below is a start. add your own.

consumers -> people
campaign -> conversation
30 second spot -> 30 second interaction
direct response -> direct conversation
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) -> Vendor Relationship Management (VRM)
purchase funnel -> instant research & purchase
reach -> attention
consumer insight -> human truth
marketing mix modeling -> predictably irrational
brand loyalty -> loyal brands
advertising agency -> business partner

Thanks for the comments

2008-05-09T20:47:00.001-07:00

One of my goals when I post a blog is to get people to comment. Whether I am right or wrong with what I say, I want to start a conversation. Therefore, I want to thank Laura for pointing out that my post last week was close to one that ran a few weeks back and to Littlejohn for coming to my defense and pointing out that the themes of posts may overlap from time to time.

While there was some overlap, I believed that my message in this post was slightly different than the one in T. Willerer's post "Cultivating a questioning discipline."

I failed to look back at "Cultivating a questioning discipline" and, as I recalled his post, it was about how to generate unique insights that enable one to create great solutions. Mine was about how not to get fired. It’s the difference between asking “why” and asking “what.”

I agree with T. Willerer that we should question everything about the assignment. But one can question without physically asking someone. And one can ask for a simple clarification without engaging in deep questioning.

I wrote my post, "Just ask," because I recently overheard a discussion about two art directors. One kept asking questions and inviting feedback. The other worked alone until the end, apparently afraid to admit that she didn't understand the assignment. I don’t have to say which one was more successful. It’s obvious, but the failure could have been avoided if the second AD had only asked for simple clarification.

I was also inspired to write about it when Littlejohn wrote about embracing his stupid. After all, this AD failed because she was afraid to look stupid.

I apologize to T. Willerer for not looking back and for not referencing his post, "Cultivating a questioning discipline" in my post. It was a good post and he covered the need to ask for clarification. But I still would have written my article. Part of my mission with this column is to help people understand what it takes to find and keep employment in our industry. And the little act of asking is key to being successful. So much so, that I now devoted two columns in a row to it.

But enough is enough. Next week, I promise to cover something different. After all, with fewer successful people in the industry, there’s more work for the rest of us. Right?

The Power of the Forken

2008-05-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

On a recent weekend trip to the grocery, to pick up some Cinco De Mayo celebratory goodies, I stumbled upon this interesting contraption. It's a plastic fork taped to an ink pen. (This is just my re-creation of the actual Safeway Store specimen; I didn't have my camera at the time.) Well, you might be wondering, as I was, what kind of nimnuts tapes a plastic fork to an ink pen? But as I finished signing my name to the store receipt, and set the Forken back down, I realized it was a very smart nimnuts that taped a plastic fork to an ink pen.

We humans have a habit of pocketing ink pens. Practically every day of our lives we get out a pen to write or sign something then put that pen back in our pocket or purse and go on about our day. So, in banks, stores, doctor offices and places where we sign stuff we tend to pocket pens that don't belong to us. It's not that we have a klepto problem when it comes to ball points, it's just habit.

But by simply taping a plastic fork to a pen it breaks that ingrained habit. We aren't used to putting forks into our pockets; they don't belong there. So we set the Forken back down and walk away. (Maybe smokers should tape a fork to their cigarette lighters at parties too.)

Changing habits and human behavior is what we do in this business. How do we get someone to walk to the other side of the aisle, visit a different URL, or drive to the other side of town, when it is their habit to do the opposite? Yes, I was inspired that day standing in line a the 15-item-or-less lane. Because I realized, sometimes all it takes to completely change a person's ingrained habitual nature and natural tendencies is a taped on plastic fork.

Lest we forget

2008-05-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Here’s the thing. At least in the realm of consumer advertising, when a person experiences an ad, it’s a brief moment, a tiny drop in the stream of their consciousness. They notice the ad, if we’re lucky, and if we’re really lucky, they engage with the ad and maybe even file some kind of positive impression in their head. They may even go to a website or make a call as a result of experiencing the ad. But that’s it. They move on. They don’t think about it any more. They don’t think back to the ad later in the day. They don’t look the ad over with a critical eye. They don’t spend time with it. They don’t start examining each element of the ad. They don’t question the motive of the advertiser. They understand full well that the advertiser will always present their product or service in a positive light. They understand that the advertiser will not denigrate or dis the target. It is safe to assume the person who experiences the ad is smart about advertising. They get the deal. They know their role. They’ve had a lifetime of experience being on the receiving end. They understand what the advertiser is trying to do and why. And, even if they won’t admit it in public, they appreciate, in a small way, being diverted, engaged, entertained and/or informed by a good ad. We would all be well served to remind ourselves and our clients, daily, how unimportant our ad is to the target audience, and how advertising-sophisticated that audience is.

Just Ask

2008-05-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

I agree with Littlejohn's post from yesterday. As he wrote, "people suppress their stupid because they want to be the one who has the solution, hits a home run, and brings the big winning idea to the client table."

But I've found that many people also suppress their "stupid," because they don't want to look stupid. This behavior extends beyond holding back on blurting out ad ideas. I have seen people sit and try to figure out an assignment on their own rather than just asking a co-worker or their boss for insight, input, or help.

But one of the great things about this industry is that we're able and encouraged to collaborate. And people tend to remember accomplishments over process. Unless the process was truly miserable.

So go ahead, ask away.

Ask for more information or a clarification. The conversation that results might be what helps you reformulate the problem, enabling you to bring a truly new insight to the table.

Ask your boss or client what he or she would like you do. And, later, ask if he or she thinks you're achieving that goal (or successfully redirecting them to a better goal, if the one they want is not acceptable to you). After all, you're not a mind reader and it's better to know the truth.

Ask to pitch in when you're "up." It's not a mark against you if you can't figure out what to do on you own. And, people will appreciate your helpfulness.

And, finally, ask for feedback on your work as you're progressing. Just make sure it's with someone who won't steal your idea until after your client rejects it. You never know, the comment or reaction you receive - or lack of one - might be the spark you need to refine your idea.

If the obvious benefits of asking are not enough, think of the potential negatives of not asking.

For starters, at the risk of stating the obvious, not asking could actually hurt your career when the bean counters realize how much valuable time has been lost because you didn't ask. So to begin the asking fest, I'd like to close with one question: How did I do with this post? Please let me know in the comments section.

Embrace Your Stupid

2008-05-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

"I know this is a really stupid idea but..."

I say those words to my art director partner a lot during our concepting sessions. They are an attempt to forgive the raw, unfiltered, half-baked, silly thought that just popped into my head. And usually what follows is indeed really stupid.

But stupid ideas, I have found, can often spark some really freakin smart ideas.

Too often we suppress our stupid because we want to be the one who has the solution, hit a home run, and brings the big winning idea to the client table. And so we're inclined to sit and wait until we have something clever to say.

But what I love about blurting out a really stupid idea is that it has the power to interrupt your train of thought, and take you down paths you shouldn't go. Or at least a direction most people wouldn't think (or dare) to go. And that's usually a pretty good place to be.

I don't know, maybe that just sounded really stupid.

Substitution

2008-04-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

A cool site from Mekanism and Element 79. I have no idea how they got the load times to load so fast but I assume someone discovered magic over there.

NOTE: Littlejohn will be posting tomorrow for anyone keeping score at home.

Doing any kind of great advertising is very, very hard.

2008-04-28T13:08:00.001-07:00

In a recent exchange between Littlejohn and me, he wrote the seemingly obvious statement above.

It got me thinking. The phrase “great advertising”, whatever we mean by it, gets bandied about quite freely. Most of us who labor in advertisingland aspire to it. Very few of us ever accomplish it. Even if we spend our entire careers working “very, very hard” to create something great.

Some of us have had a “great idea” at some point. I think I have. I remember the distinct physiological reaction when it happened. Adrenalin. Chills. (Of course, I’ve had that reaction with what were really only “very good” ideas as well.)

If you’ve ever experienced the conception of a great idea, you know how rare it is, how hard you have to work to put your brain in the position to conceive the idea, and, how unlikely it is that you will be able to bring that great idea to fruition in the real world.

Fewer of us have successfully conveyed that potentially great idea to our partner, if we have one, or to our CD.

Of those who have done that, fewer still have then been able to execute the idea, even at the conceptual stage, so as to capture or retain the greatness of the idea.

And far fewer yet have proceeded to present and sell the great idea to our clients.

And keep it sold long enough to get it produced.

Finally, for those fortunate few who have sold, and kept sold, a great idea, only a fraction of those people have been able to successfully retain the greatness during the process of realizing the great execution of the great idea.

It is this creative/political minefield, in which the odds are so lopsidedly stacked against even the most talented creative, to which, I think, Littlejohn alludes.

Which, once again, underscores the wisdom of Chairman Jimmy’s advice: “Enjoy the process. The result is usually a letdown.”

Of course, he doesn’t tell us exactly HOW to enjoy navigating this nearly impossible obstacle course. Anybody have any insights into this “how?” question?

constraints and innovation

2008-04-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Often great innovations come from (seemingly) tough constraints. In the web world, twitter and tumblr come to mind as two examples.

Twitter strips down the blogging experience and constrains users to type their message in 140 characters or less and tumblr makes sharing anything (text, video, pictures, quotes, etc.) easy and central.

So how do constraints help?

They focus the problem. No longer is it possible to consider every scenario. Constraints introduce focus, which is needed when trying to innovate.

They speed up the process. By constraining the options, there is less to consider which allows faster production and failure. Without rapid failure and iteration, there would be no innovation.

They help define the strategy. Constraints allow us to make trade-offs in strategy by defining "the not". Strategy is not only about what you will do, but also about what you will not do.

They foster collaboration. When constrained, teams generally work more closely together to overcome. Collaboration becomes a necessity and innovation the outcome.

Understanding that constraints typically lead to innovation was counterintuitive to me and hard for me to grasp, but now that I do I'm a firm believer.

The birth of open source advertising: Please spread the word

2008-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine at Columbia College asked me about an article he recently read claiming that the Obama campaign was the first organization to perfect the use of “open source advertising.”

While I can’t find the source of that article (if you know where I could read up on it, please let me know), it got me thinking.

The cynical side of me started wondering about how long it will take for an agency to claim a specialty in this area, how long will it take for one of the “hip” marketing firm will name its first Director of Open Source Advertising, and how many weeks it will take before I receive my first direct mailer for an upcoming trade show that is featuring this topic in their keynote. Perhaps one—or even all three—of these have already happened.

And, the then opportunistic side of me began wondering if I could turn this idea into a book deal. Then, I’d be the one giving those keynotes. But I’m already working on two upcoming books as a co-author and I have to keep making sure my most recent book continues to find a life. So if I were to take on a book project about open source advertising, the time would be gone before I complete it.

Seriously, the concept of open source advertising sounds sound. Rather than relying on the whims of consumers to get the brand right, open source advertising (as it was explained to me) ensures that consumers get the brand right when they create their own communications about a product, service, or person. Inspired by the principles of open source software development , people are allowed to adapt and improve the original material in order to better communicate the material. How this can be done for toilet paper and other low involvement products, I am not sure.

But I guess I’ll leave that to the new Open Source Advertising Gurus and Directors of Open Source Advertising. After all, isn’t that how our industry works? Because if we can’t hype ourselves, who can we hype?

Why I do what I do

2008-04-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

I’m not one of those copywriters who is just dabbling in advertising until I can publish the next great American novel. I’m not even working on one, and have no plans to. I have no interest in writing a screenplay. Conceptually speaking TV bores me. Modern art makes me laugh. The point is advertising isn’t some sort of back up career. I looked at every creative job out there and I chose this one. Why?

Well it probably has something to do with that fact that fiction, in general, usually feels like a fluffy, imaginary waste of time. And art, for the most part, is as self-indulgent and pretensions as a glorified personal cat blog, framed and hung on the wall. (Some artist out there probably thinks that’s actually not a bad idea).

Yes, like a true ad man I look at the novel and think to myself, it’s been done to death, what’s next? The same goes for movies, TV, and music. (Some art feels slightly original but it loses points for being massively pointless. On the other hand, art that has a point is always just bad.)

Ideas are what got me into this business.

The chance to do something that’s never been done before (even though everything has been done). To be a part of a creative class that doesn’t limit itself to one stale medium, but looks at the world as a great big giant idea canvas. The freedom to make websites, board games, new products, ring-tones, and to plaster your creations on bus shelters and buildings. And to do work that doesn’t take itself too seriously (at least shouldn’t). That’s what got me into this business.

When I think about it. I’m probably more of an idea man than an ad man. But advertising is the best home for people like me. And I love it. However, if I ever find some magical place that will pay me to come up with ideas all day and then shell out the cash to produce them, with the sole purpose of making people smile––you’ll know where to find me.

The best links

2008-04-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

We're all used to agency wide emails. Most of the email chains I'm on have links to various sites done by other agencies, most recently it was the White Gold campaign done by Goodby (I think we all got this email). But on occasion I'll get sent a link that isn't like the usual agency wide email fare. This link came from a guy in our design department. Not sure who did the site but it was for Nokia. Anyone know the creators?

UPDATE: farfar is the agency behind this site.

AAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

2008-04-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Please tell me it’s not true. Tell me that Goodby, my very favorite ad agency in the world, doesn’t do ALL of Comcast’s print advertising.

Because I just saw an ad from Comcast featuring, big and bold, arguably the single most overused, stupid, worn out, hackneyed clichéd headline in the history of advertising.

“Comcast Means Business.”

I know. I couldn’t believe it either.

No irony. No wink. No clever insider reference or self-mockery.

How can this happen? I know that not every ad out of Goodby is an immortal gem, but come on. When I think of Goodby and risk, I don’t think of the risk of having created possibly the most obvious, banal, lazy, stupid, loathsome ad in memory. It’s one thing to let a stinker sneak by once in a great while. It’s another thing altogether to let the Stinker Of The World out into the world.

In 1990 or so, an article ran in one of the advertising trade journals railing against this exact same headline. Above the article there was collage of ad headlines, probably at least a dozen of them, all starting with the name of the brand, followed by the two words, “means business.” Kind of like polio, just when it looks like we've rid the world of it, it rears its ugly head again.

(There was a similar article during that same period complaining about the ubiquity of ads with headlines that began, “The Art Of _____” or “The Science Of ____”, which I’m now dreading seeing in the next Comcast ad I confront.)

Wait a minute. What am I talking about? Shame on me. I know perfectly well that this ad could not have come from Goodby. They are simply too good of an ad agency. I owe Goodby an apology for doubting them, even for a second.

A far more likely explanation is that some piece of Comcast business resides with some other, lesser agency that is responsible for this abhorrent ad. That, most certainly, is the explanation (though how ANY agency could have allowed this ad to happen remains beyond explanation.) Whew. I feel better. I scared myself there for a minute.

advertising as a cover up

2008-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been shopping for a car as of late and can't help but be struck by how all the great advertising I've seen melts away when I have a poor dealer experience (which is pretty much every time).

And what about restaurants? I'm in Tahoe right now and was lured in by advertising for a bar & grill on the Lake. The service was terrible, though, which made the whole experience less than desirable.

What's my point?

Don't use advertising as a cover-up.
Stop all your advertising until you fix the customer experience.
Think of your customer experience (shopping, test driving, browsing your website, etc.) as the most important and expensive advertising you have available.
Think of the dollars spent on advertising to attract new or repeat customers as coming out of the same budget as dollars spent on the customer experience.

Word of mouth (not the manufactured kind) is still the most persuasive form of advertising and typically it comes from having a great product and superior customer service. Not from killer advertising. The ideal is to have a killer product, killer customer service and killer advertising. They work together, not independently.

Your brand is a conversation. Make it a good one.

2008-04-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

A brand is a conversation between a company and its customer tribes. That’s a simple idea, yes, but it’s also one that’s very difficult to deliver on. And just what do we mean by a “conversation”?

First a trip in the way-back machine: For a very long time, businesses focused on products and sales. And they thrived. Their marketing flowed in one direction, from company to consumer: selling, advertising, and generally imposing their brands on a hungry audience of consumers. A one-way conversation.

Then: Change. Markets became crowded with competitive choices, and interruptive advertising became pervasive. Businesses no longer thrived. The marketing techniques that grew out of their sales-and-product focus stopped working. Today, the volume of product choice is enormous, and the media is saturated.

Something new is demanded of businesses. They can no longer force-feed their messages to consumers. The conversation is no longer one-way. But businesses have found that it’s a Herculean effort to start listening to consumers and asking permission to talk to them. Where do you start?

The following is a list of essentials that we’ve used to help companies find their brand voice and engage in meaningful conversations with their customer tribes:

•All brands, big and small, tell a story. People love to tell stories, and stories spread. We advise our clients to be extremely clear about their brand stories, and to be smart about how they communicate them. A brand like Harley-Davidson calls to mind stories about the open road, freedom, rebellion. They’re rich stories, and they spread. We get our clients to ask the question: what story does our brand tell? What do you want it to tell? Then we help them craft a story that people will feel, and then tell, about them.

•A brand story stays out of the way unless people seek it out. People are busy and have high expectations. Interrupting them in the middle of something (like a television show or reading a magazine) is annoying. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has gotten the message. They’ve signed on as the sole sponsor for the History Channel's 10-part series about the U.S.S. Enterprise aircraft carrier. As a result, the episodes will have 55 minutes of content instead of the 45 minutes typical of hour-long programs. The deal is indicative of a trend among broadcast networks and marketers toward reducing commercial "clutter" to retain their audiences, according to a recent New York Times article.

•A brand story that is present in places where people are looking for it is well received. That’s the reason for the rise of search engine optimization and the dominance of Google. It’s all about the content: education, entertainment, resources and community. Countless businesses of all sizes flourish due to search engine optimization, and storefronts on eBay, where eager shoppers seek specialty products or bargain prices.

•A brand story gets customer tribes talking, both about the company and to the company. Many companies claim that all of their business comes from referral. Even when their first awareness of a brand comes from advertising, many prospective customers take steps to explore the brand before they buy. Often that means asking a friend or colleague. The founders of Zilker ventures have built an entire business model on this concept. Their efax shopper comparison site lays out an ‘apples to apples’ comparison of products and services, making it easy for small business owners to make a choice. The company plans to launch a series of resource websites for small and middle market businesses, and expects to attract customers by search engine optimization as well as satisfied user evangelism, brought on by the satisfaction of having a single source for comprehensive buyer info clearly laid out.

•A brand conversation has integrity. Unilever’s dove natural beauty campaign took a hit with the company’s male deodorant product, Axe, and its sexist imagery.

•A brand conversation takes place anywhere the company touches its customer tribe, so is therefore about much more than the marketing media, but also the product offering, customer service, consistency and integrity. Thinkink! Provides negotiation training for large sales organizations. Their philosophy: how you negotiate deals is a reflection of your brand. If one rep offers a discount while another does not, your image becomes inconsistent in the marketplace. This can be confusing in the eyes of customers, or even damaging to the business.

There is a lot of pressure on marketers to be accountable for results. Seeing their brands as a conversation doesn’t make accountability any easier, but it does let marketers start a conversation, and that’s the path to long-term relationships with customers.

Kevin Masi is Co-founder, President, & Future Builder of Torque, a Brand Marketing Agency

Meet client needs, not necessarily wants

2008-04-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

Back in March, fellow Peanut Gallery denizens Tom Tom and Littlejohn chimed in on the importance of viewing and dealing with clients as if they were actual human beings, because they are. This is a valuable point that merits revisiting often, in order to fend of the apparently inevitable tendency to one-dimensionialize, stereotype and often demonize clients. It’s tough to earn respect and trust from someone you disdain, dismiss or demean.

This does not, however, mean we should kowtow, suck up, subserve or patronize our clients. Much of the value an agency offers its clients lies in its independent thought and willingness to share that thought, along with a spirited advocacy for and defense of the creative process.

The difference between good to great ad agencies and mediocre to bad ones is not necessarily the level of creative talent. It is more likely to be that agency’s ability to guide, direct, explain, consult, push and sell to clients. This in turn is predicated on developing a certain level of trust, which can only happen over time, built on having mutual success.

Agencies, as a rule, are more likely to create great work than to sell it.

Perhaps it’s helpful to remind ourselves that our job is not to make client conversations as short and pleasant as possible. Rather, we need to recognize when the client needs some tough love. A good client understands that sometimes the agency has a better idea of what they need (versus what they want) than they do. Here are some things that I’ve found most clients need, but few want:

• To slow down

• To plan, spend and generally think about their brand proactively, not reactively

• To think harder

• To know their customers better, or trust that we do

• To use their marketing dollars more wisely

• To keep the brand top of mind (in their own minds)

• To stretch their comfort zone

• To trust our judgment and their own judgment over the results of an informal poll of six people they bump into in the corridor

• To get over themselves

Surely this list is not exhaustive. What else do clients need, but not necessarily want?

Blog on Vacation

2008-04-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

We will be out all this week. But come back next week for ad snack time.

people, not labels

2008-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

In advertising we study people. We attempt to understand what they want, why they want it and what we can do to convince them. Notice the language I'm already using: we and them. As if we aren't them.

We also attempt to group people together into targets against which we create messages and buy media.

Do these labels make it easier or harder for us to meaningfully market to people? Is a target group helpful or does it hinder our ability to actually persuade people? Is it possible to market to people, not labels? Should we drop the idea of a target?

So I've raised a few questions without answers. Here comes my opinion. I think labels (i.e. targets) are necessary for marketing. We can never capture the complexity of every human being so targets are an efficient and effective way of resonating (at least partly) with a large group of people. Having said that, I think awareness of the abstract and thus, inherently inaccurate, nature of targets is also needed. Without this balance we risk thinking that targets are real, which they aren't, people are real.

Balance the need for targeting with awareness. Awareness of the risk that thinking of people as targets can block your ability to actually perceive them as real people.

In defense of political advertising, Part II

2008-03-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Those who argue that political advertising is intrinsically bad misunderstand the role of advertising in our society. For the voting public to make an informed decision on whom to vote for, they need access to candidates’ views, and also to their demeanor, their leadership style, their “vibe.”

While the news media, collectively (TV, radio, print, internet) is an important avenue to accomplish the airing of candidates and their views, it isn’t sufficient. Many people don’t consume much news. Yet they may still be interested in making an informed choice between candidates.

Thus, advertising, with its ability to reach many people the news media might not, is a valuable (necessary?) piece of the mix.

While advertising is, by its nature, biased, that bias is largely negated by the fact that everyone understands this built-in bias and therefore factors it into their processing of the political advertising messages they receive. Of course a candidate will present himself and his views in his advertising in as positive a light as possible, and cast his opponent as negatively as he feels his audience will tolerate. But this bias is not unique to his advertising and other communications that he controls.

The information received via newspapers, magazines, TV and radio news and the internet is also inevitably biased, but more insidiously so since it generally pretends not to be.

And the whole sound bytes are inherently misleading or distorting is silly. Just because information comes in little bits at a time, doesn’t make that information wrong. If the information is misleading or distorting, that is because the candidate and his organization have chosen to communicate in a misleading or distorting way, regardless of how brief the bit of information is.

Another fundamental misunderstanding of advertising’s role that leads to its condemnation in the arena of politics is based on the assumption that advertising’s sole purpose is to sell. This is obviously not true. Advertising informs, persuades, influences, nudges, creates allegiances and emotional bonds, entertains—just as stump speeches, political press releases and interviews with Stewart or Maher or Letterman do.

A politician should be free to use whatever modes of communication are at his/her disposal to get his message out. Advertising is a perfectly legitimate option for doing just that. The fact that most political ads are badly done is a shame, but it’s beside the point.

cultivating a questioning discipline

2008-03-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Most of my life I've annoyed people, starting with my mother and currently my wife, by asking too many questions. Constantly asking questions, trying to understand why, always being curious. My mother used to tell me to go outside after she couldn't take it any longer. My wife just looks at me. You know the look. The one that says, "leave me alone, pal."

Luckily I haven't let these experiences stop me from constantly asking questions. And in the work-world, I've found that asking questions is actually an underutilized approach to solving complex problems. Typically we just sit through a meeting and don't say peep, even though we have no idea what so-and-so meant or didn't understand why the boss dismissed our idea. That's no good.

Asking questions is a discipline that needs to be cultivated. We all need to get over our fear of looking stupid for asking questions. Just ask questions. It's actually much stupider (is that a word?) to not understand something, when a simple question could have helped us understand.

I also suggest keeping a journal of questions, stuff like:

Do we (consumers) make decisions based on rational or irrational factors?
What would make people actually watch this commercial?
How is technology changing the way we communicate?
Why do two negative numbers, when multiplied, equal a positive?

Stuff like that. Your list will hopefully be different, but it doesn't need to all be serious or about your job. It just needs to be about things for which you are interested.

This post is begging me to end with the obligatory Chinese Proverb, so here goes:

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

The not so distant future of advertising

2008-03-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

I went to the future a few days ago. It was loads of fun. While I was there I managed to scribbled a few notes down in my mole-skin notebook about what advertising is like in the future. Here are a few things I found interesting.

Word of Mouth - In the future companies can hear everything you say using these nano-millo-chip thingies that float in the air molecules. So companies like Coca-soft and AppleKraft offer large amounts of electronic monetary funds to the 10 billionth person who says their company's name or slogan out loud each week. This means people randomly interject company names into casual conversation in hopes that they might be the big winner. It also means that old people just repeat company names over and over when they are alone in their fiber-caves. They don't know you can't win unless another person or cyborg actually hears you say it.

Free Sampling - In the future we will have robot servants. And they will be able to read our minds. And when they sense that we are thirsty they will offer you a free sample of Starbucks' newest icy, electrolight enhanced coffee beverage. These robots will have all the ingredients needed to make these new beverages already downloaded inside their mechanical bellies. So in just a few seconds you can have a delicious Starbucks refreshment pouring out of your robo-servant's finger. The first drink is free, but every time you request your robot slave to make this drink for you again, they charge your robo-account.

Promotional Dancing Monkeys - In the future, they still have those dudes in monkey suits dancing outside car dealerships, holding up "0% APR" signs. But instead of there being a dude inside the monkey suit, it's a robot. And dealerships are selling flying cars. Also, robots in monkey suits can do the moonwalk way better than regular people ever could.

Interactive - In the future Google is inside your brain. Which means when you are drunk, the internet doesn't work very well. You end up mental-clicking a lot of stuff you never wanted to, like mental ads. Companies know when you are drunk, and so they start sending you lots of promotional offers. So while you are stumbling around trying to look up a mindmap so you can find your way back home from the party at your friend's fiber-cave, you get confused and end up ordering your credit score like 15 times.

Hair Cuts - In the future you can take a pill to stop your hair from growing so you never need a hair cut. Then you can take another pill to make it grow again. That has nothing to do with advertising, but I think it's pretty cool.

Where we come in

2008-03-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tom Tom had an interesting article from Sunday, which he allowed us to see things from the clients perspective. I agreed with everything he wrote and it got me thinking, and what I came up with is simple:

Clients aren't like normal people.

If clients were like normal people they wouldn't need us. They would create and market their products themselves and they would do both equally well. But the clients perspective has a flaw that prevents this from happening; they're too close to their products.

They know the ins the outs, the benefits, the prices, and many other selling points of their products and on many occasions they want those tangible benefits big, bold and right-up-front. They're too focused on what the product is as opposed to what the it means to the consumer.

And that's where we come in. We most likely have little knowledge of the product in relation to our client, but what we lack in product expertise we make up with having product understanding, which is the ability to to pick out the selling points that can be communicated to consumers in a palatable way. This mindset can turn a product into a brand.

Basically, we know people. We know how they think and in what ways they want to be talked to, I think if there is a common strenth among advertising creatives this would be it. That's our great selling point, we're cultural psychologists, we know people and culture better than anyone (except, possibly, for real cultural psychologists).

In defense of political advertising, Part 1

2008-03-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Theodore Sturgeon famously asserted, “ 90 percent of everything is crud.”

Those in our industry who reject the very concept of political advertising are guilty, I think, of condemning the category for the sins of that 90%.

This is a common error. If you are inclined against any particular activity or endeavor, (pop music, video games, TV shows, advertising, whatever), there are oh so many easy targets out there to shoot at—90 percent of them within any given category, if Sturgeon is right, and I think he is.

But the fact that ten percent of any given activity is not crud refutes any categorical condemnation of that activity. Pop music isn’t bad per se. It’s just that most pop music is bad. Advertising isn’t bad per se. It’s just that most advertising is bad.

Critics of political advertising attack it from a different direction. Or at least they think they do. Generally, they don’t condemn advertising as a whole. After all, most of the most vociferous critics of political advertising are admen themselves. They simply feel that humans shouldn’t be commoditized and packaged as if they were beer.

It’s true that political candidates are not breakfast cereal or underwear. They are complicated humans who stand for far more than can be captured in a 30 spot or a direct mail flyer. And they affect people’s lives in sometimes profound ways, in contrast to toilet paper.

People who condemn political advertising argue that it’s wrong to sell a candidate as if he or she were just another household product to be hawked. Doing so belittles the candidate and demeans the political process, blah blah blah. (I must inject here, I’m not sure it is possible to belittle most candidates or to demean the political process. Aren’t they, respectively, self-belittling and self-demeaning?)

One problem with this argument is that this sound-bytey, superficial, packaged goods approach to selling a candidate isn’t necessary or inevitable. It’s just commonly used. Like 90 percent of the time.

It’s perfectly possible for political advertising to be responsible, respectful, thoughtful, to reflect the candidate’s complexity, represent his stance on issues of the day, just as any other form of communication he may choose to employ can. The fact that most candidates don’t use the avenue of advertising in this manner is not a condemnation of advertising, but of those candidates.

Next week, I will argue that the bias built into advertising isn’t a basis for criticizing political advertising. And that advertising’s job isn’t simply to sell things. For these reasons, political advertising is a perfectly legitimate, justifiable and reasonable option for political candidates to use.

Clients are people

2008-03-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Not just people, oftentimes very intelligent people. They've managed to work their way into trusted positions within a company through many years of hard work. And they don't want it taken away from them by some hot-headed twenty-something who thinks this or that would be "cool". Make sure you have this in mind any time you present to them. They are not impressed with your awards from competitions they've never heard of (they probably have their own from competitions you've never heard of), they want you to tell them something that they don't know in a way that they can believe.

In reality clients would ease back a ton if they had any idea how much time and thought truly went into every piece of communication. That even the things they think are accidental are thought out. That 14 conversations at three levels of the organization occurred before arriving at 13 pt italics. Let the client into your brain a bit and give them a tour. That way they won't have a spur of the moment brilliant idea which you had the first day and passed on because you came up with something better.

I will leave you with a lesson I learned from a creative director early in my career that has served me phenomenally well. Never use the word "cool" to describe an idea, use the word "smart" instead. You'd be surprised how much impact this semantic switch can have.

Happy Easter (or ordinary Sunday, as your respective religion deems appropriate).

advertising wishlist

2008-03-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

I wish:

there was less advertising, not more
advertising were more about being useful than funny
agencies focused more on pleasing their consumers than their clients
advertising was on-demand instead of ubiquitous
advertising was there when I wanted it, but not any time else
advertising was more overt, not covert
i actually didn't feel the need to skip or block advertising

am I asking too much?

Should We Embrace the Rejects and the Fakes?

2008-03-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

Last week, we at Advertising for Peanuts received an email announcing a new ad contest and it sparked quite a bit of conversation among us. Here’s the first paragraph from that email:

“We’re excited to announce our call for entries for The 2008 Speckie Awards. The Speckies (www.thespeckies.com) level the playing field for creatives because it enables them to showcase any of their ad ideas that did not run which in turn allows us to award the best ideas on their merit, rather than being based on luck and the ability to survive all the politics and bureaucracy of the advertising world.”

To emphasize the speculative nature of this contest, their rules on their website even state that one could submit ads for imaginary clients. While not the first advertising contest to honor ideas that never ran because the client rejected them, it does seem to be among the first one to embrace pure spec advertising. The only other venue for honoring spec work in advertising that I can identify is CMYK magazine and that fine publication targets ad students. This contest seems to be open to everyone.

And while I must admit that the Speckies seemed to have amassed a strong judging panel, including such recognized creatives as Doug Jaeger; Katy Dreke (from Wexley School for Girls), Nick Cohen, and Patrick Hanlon and I probably mention this contest to my students, this announcement raised tons of questions for me:

If an entry was for a real product, was it rejected because it was off brand? True, a great idea is a great idea, but concepts get rejected all of the time because the core message is inconsistent with brand. What does putting off-brand messages and imagery out there do to the brand, even if we know that these messages and images are fakes? What responsibility, if any, does the creative team have in protecting the brand during off hours and outside of paid media?

In other words, what does this say about the team or individual who entered it? Could it look like these people are at odds with the brands they are paid to protect and promote?

It it’s a spec ad for a fake product and it was done by a professional team, where did they get the time? Why aren’t they spending the time on their real products and projects? Or why can’t they get real work? And, where are they accrediting their time on their time sheets? True, every creative team has some down time, but is this the best way to spend it? Some management types might not think that it’s a good way to fill the hours. Also, others might see it as easier, because with a spec ad you can come up with the idea and work your way back to the product. On the other hand, maybe doing fake work is a good way to fill the time. Perhaps creatives should be rewarded for spending their time trying to advance their skills.

In other words, what does it say about the team or individual who entered The Speckie Awards? It could be seen in a poor light. Or it could be seen positively.

So what do you think? How will the Speckie Awards be perceived in your organization? What is the value on the resume? And do you think it’s even worth the time for people to enter any awards show in general? Please, let’s get the discussion going? Just click the comments link below to give me your thoughts. I really want to hear what you have to say.

What Would Gossage Do?

2008-03-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

If an ad man can actually be someone's hero, Howard Luck Gossage has been mine. The guy was doing stuff in the 50's that would take home a bag full of Lions and Pencils if it ran today...seriously. If you haven't read The Book of Gossage, I recommend you click that link now and super express-o-ship it to your office address before reading the rest of this post.

Gossage's philosophy of advertising can be summed up in one or two sentences depending on how you punctuate it: "People read what interests them. And sometimes it's an ad." That quote has guided and inspired my work ever since I started playing this picture/word game.

But Lately I've wonder if Howard was around today, would he say the same thing? In a world of Tivo, and Firefox ad blockers and spam and ad clutter info overload, I'm not sure.

I sometimes think today he might say something more like, "People don't like ads. So don't make them." And then I think, Gossage would have said it much better.

The point is, in today's ad clutter culture, if you're just trying to make interesting ads, you are setting yourself up to fail. The best advice I could give anyone starting out, or anyone for that matter, is don't make ads. We need to be making experiences, and discoveries, and new inventions and playgrounds and then making them relevant to and ambassadors of our brands.

Of course, back in the 50's Gossage was pumping pink air into people's tires and inventing the Shirtkerchief and selling paper by holding international paper airplane competitions. So, perhaps Howard Luck Gossage said it right the first time.

Dancing Fools

2008-03-17T07:26:00.001-07:00

There are roughly two types of “dancing” commercials. The first uses dance as a pure expression of the brand. The Gap campaign and the silhouetted iPod spots of a few years back are good examples. I have no issue with this use of dance in commercials.

In the other type of dancing spot, we see people dancing with glee or joy or happiness or whatever in reaction to the benefit of a product or service. These are not abstract human representations of the personality of a brand. These are presumed to be more or less real people in more or less real world environments like their homes, workplaces, on the street, etc.

I have a HUGE problem with these spots. There have been scores of them over the decades. I’d like to say the preponderance of them were during the 60’s and 70’s, but, sadly, that hasn’t been the case. Today, we are as likely to be subjected to one of these travesties as 50 years ago. Some recent offenders? Swiffer. Glade. Wachovia. Banquet Crock Pot Meals. Shoe Carnival. The list is longer than this.

So what’s my problem? It is the unconscionable degree of falseness entailed in dancing because you’re so happy about your jumbo mortgage from Wachovia, or so pleased with how easy it is to clean the floor with a Swiffer, or so delighted at your yummy prefab meal. In spots like these, the advertiser clearly has succumbed to the inexcusable indulgence of showing their presumed target reacting as the advertiser could only dream they would, by waltzing, two stepping, prancing with irrepressible glee. Whatz!?

They is sooo 60’s-era in their superficiality and lack of any connection to the real world and real people’s real emotions. The absence of credibility in these portrayals undermines their ability to communicate a credible, to say nothing of compelling, message regarding the product. It’s one thing for a person to reveal a smile of satisfaction regarding a product or service (though even this usually looks bogus in a commercial context). But to show supposedly real-ish people breaking into dance over life’s most trivial and banal matters is so beyond the pale, it violates the understanding between advertisers and consumers that commercials will hang on to some thread of plausibility in the claims and promises contained within them. These dancing fools make the advertiser look equally foolish. And it’s just plain insulting to the viewer.

All of us in the industry pay the price for the damage done by this violation. Agencies who continue to offer advertising like this to their clients are guilty of enabling these advertisers’ worst urges. I personally resent having to labor under the ongoing burden created by such disingenuous advertising. You should too.

Learn to use the media you've got!

2008-03-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

This is a suggestion, nay, a plea to all marketers out there. Please learn to do something good with the media you already have before invading everywhere else I look.

Don't get me wrong, I love guerrilla advertising if it surprises, delights and makes people happy. I simply can't stand that I have, for example, a (bad) GM ad on my airline tray table. Really, did I need that? Were your ads so great that I just couldn't wait to open a magazine before seeing it?

This whole plague of advertising stems from one thing: bad creative that couldn't sell antidotes to poison victims. Creatives/Media types can't think of a good actual idea (because of client restraints or whatever bad excuse) and therefore spend their time searching for a little spot that nobody has ever thought to place an ad ("Hey, how about ads in peoples' sinks at home! I'm a genius!" and they strike. Thus forever ruining whatever item it was the ad was placed on forever for all of us.

So here's what I propose as a rule: if your message contextually makes sense with where you put it AND it causes more happiness than annoyance, GO! If however it's just another space that people look (I'm reminded of a Steve Martin movie where he suggests tongues as an untapped media space) then please...keep it to yourself and learn to do your job. Not for your client, but for the industry and for humanity.

advertising as content

2008-03-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about the dichotomy that exists in advertising: consumers ignore ads, but ads still work (albeit subtly). I then asked if this is the way it has to be and invited readers to comment. I still welcome your comments, but wanted to kick off this series with an idea.

Picture this scenario: you are browsing yahoo news and you notice an ad that says something like, "Did you miss the last episode of The Office? Click here to watch it". You click on the ad and a player pops out and starts playing the episode of The Office that you missed. You can either watch the entire episode in full screen or leave it on in the background as you continue to browse the web.

This seems like a winning scenario. It's useful to consumers, the Studios get folks watching their programming and they make money off of every view, and advertisers make it all happen by running a few ads during the content.

As people continually fragment across all media, it is becoming increasingly important for content providers (traditionally the studios) to intersect people where they are instead of expecting them to visit their site (or TV station). And, since the revenue model is embedded in the content (ads), there is no reason to force people to visit a site (or TV station).

Hulu is close to making this vision a reality. They have a website, but they also distribute their content and allow people to embed their videos on their own websites. Taking this idea further, it seems like the online advertising framework that exists today is perfectly suited for distributing content. The scenario I detailed above seems like a no-brainer.

See below for a glimpse of what's to come:

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

2008-03-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

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.

We Are Like Crazy People

2008-03-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

I sit in coffee shops and on buses and sidewalk cafes, with a notebook and a pen, looking into space (or at something with a corner). Every few minutes I smile to myself and nod my head and then quickly scribble something in my book. I reaffix my gaze. Then I scribble some more. I do this for a few hours.

I can tell people sitting close by wonder what I’m working on. They probably think I’m an aspiring novelist, soaking in the life around me and jotting down the powerful subtleties of the everyday. Or perhaps they imagine me as a poet crafting a delicate sonnet. Or a musician, twisting lyrics of angst and irony. Or maybe I’m an indie screenwriter. I can tell the ladies are especially curious.

But as these onlookers get up to leave and walk past me, they catch a glimpse of my notebook. And it is at that moment they realize I have I spent the last 3 hours writing down pointless doodles and random nonsensical phrases and then drawing boxes around some of those doodles and laughing to myself.

That’s when they realize I am not an artist or a poet or any of these. I’m probably just a crazy person.

Don't necessarily trust your gut

2008-03-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

When Schwab “borrowed,” or as I like to call it, “ripped off,” the technique of animating over film that was showcased in "Waking Life" many years ago, my reaction to the first spot I saw was to recoil and dive for the remote. I have been similarly driven to flip with every viewing of every subsequent Schwab spot. I don’t usually have such an intense visceral reaction to TV commercials. So I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on why it is that I find these commercials so abhorrent.

When I viewed "Waking Life", I had nothing resembling this revulsion. In fact, I enjoyed the movie, though I felt like the technique was simply an interesting novelty and had been pretty much “used up” with this film.

So, why my reaction to the Schwab spots? As near as I can figure, there are two reasons: the first is that the people characterized in these spots are, to me, extraordinarily unlikable. They make me think of all the shallow, money-driven, affluent people that I try so hard to avoid in my daily life. The writing in these spots captures very effectively the way these people talk and think.

The other reason is harder to articulate. There is something about how this particular version of this animating technique unfailingly renders the subjects of these spots, for lack of a better term, creepy. I feel like they are automatized. Rather than enhancing or personalizing the individualism or humanity of each character, these aspects seem to me entirely, eerily, absent.

Pretty much every one of the dozens of people I’ve discussed this campaign with report having a similar reaction.

On the other hand, while the campaign seems to be aimed at boomers and almost boomers like me and most of the people I’ve discussed the campaign with, mine is a small sample, and may be anomalous. In fact, I have to assume this is the case because Schwab just keeps cranking out these spots, which surely must mean they have determined that the spots are working. Lots of people out there somewhere must be having a completely opposite reaction to mine.

My point? Advertising sure is subjective, ain’t it?

a fresh perspective on advertising

2008-03-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

Most people don't want advertising. They find it annoying, intrusive, unwanted, unnecessary, manipulative, etc.

Most people don't fully pay attention to ads when they do end up noticing them. Ads are rarely (if ever) the reason for watching a TV show, reading a magazine, visiting a website, driving down the road, etc. They are always secondary (except on rare occasions like the super bowl).

I could go on, but I won't. You get the point.

You're probably thinking: oh boy, here it comes, he's going to tell us that advertising doesn't work. Quite the contrary. Advertising does work. Subtly. Its sort of like growing older. It happens, but we don't keep track of it very often. Mostly we celebrate our age every year, not everyday. The same for advertising. Messages are shaping our thoughts and desires everyday, but we don't internalize them as they come, rather we wait until the time when we need to buy something or when we're having a conversation. And even then the internalization is often less rational and overt than we think.

This is a strange paradox: we ignore advertising, but advertising still works. Is this the way it has to be? What could the advertising model of the future be? What should the advertising model of the future be? Lets think about this together. If you have an idea, leave a comment. I'll post on this over the coming weeks.

If you've ever dunked off a trampoline, this is for you

2008-03-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool spot for Adidas from 180 Amsterdam. It reminds me of using a mini-trampoline to dunk basketballs in my driveway as a kid. I think it has something to do with the 2012 Olympics, but it may just be Olympic themed.

Will images replace words in web advertising?

2008-03-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

At the risk of dredging up old news, I must respond to the POV by Gary Schenk in the January issue of Creativity. It was a real hackle-raiser. Mr. Shenk articulates an across-the-board dismissal of language (or "text" as he insists on calling it) in advertising as some old school artifact or vestige of a bygone era, which is now being supplanted online by imagery.

I find this both silly and scary (to speak nothing of transparently self-serving, given that Mr. Shenk is the CEO of Corbis.)

It's one thing to point out the obvious, that the web is becoming and will continue to become more visually interesting, with imagery playing an increasingly important role in helping to deliver messages. I join Mr. Shenk in welcoming the increase in imagery on the web, as well as the corresponding reduction in dry, cold, and overly lengthy language that occurs in so many contexts on the web.

But it’s an entirely different thing to proclaim, as Mr. Shenk does, that "imagery alone can send a powerful message" or that "imagery is accelerating as the shorthand for communicating messages and conveying meaning."

What Mr. Shenk seems not to understand, is that even the most powerful, evocative image is entirely without value as a commercial communication device, absent the accompanying language that informs and interprets that image. Language, sometimes as little as one word, is necessary to imbue the image with a particular meaning in order to deliver the advertiser's intended message.

The Dove campaign for real beauty (which Mr. Shenk invokes as proof that it's all about the image) proves, instead, precisely the opposite point. The body of images that comprise that campaign would be nothing but a collection of nice photos of women, without the unifying concept of "real beauty" to guide the viewer in interpreting the images in relation to the brand and its message. To define and convey the concept of real beauty, it must be articulated with, you know, words. That's precisely what language does, while imagery without language, does not and cannot.

The stock images and footage that Mr. Shenk hawks, regardless of how rich, compelling, provocative, beautiful, true or cool they may be, must always, by their nature, be relegated to the role of handmaiden to language. As visually oriented as advertising communication—in print, online or within any other medium—may become, it is only via language that it can be made to convey, not just some meaning, but the very specific meaning intended by the advertiser.

Tom Tom and the Mystery Brief

2008-03-02T22:23:00.000-08:00

I few weeks ago I had the flu and spent most of the day in bed. As a result I had some of the most bizarre dreams and one that was oddly depressing. That's the one I want to talk about.

It began at night when I first tucked away to bed. I had a dream that I'd been given a brief for a new brand that our agency had just pitched and won. New business, open to interpretation, a creative joy.

I woke up about 3 hours later with a brilliant creative solution. I promised myself that I would remember it. It was too good of an idea to forget. I went back to bed.

Several hours later I woke up again with another breakthrough idea. Some really killer stuff. I also remembered back that I'd had that other idea earlier and remembered it clearly. I went back to bed.

Yet more hours later I woke with another keen idea. This one so earth shattering it rattled me from my sleep. I recited the earlier ideas in my head too to make sure I wouldn't forget.

Then I finally woke up for the last time. Ready to write it all down. Now I know what you're all thinking, that suddenly I wouldn't be able to remember (because that's happened all too many times to all of us). But, I did remember (sorta). The only problem is, the product for which I had all these great ideas for isn't one of our clients. Actually it's not anyone's client because the product didn't exist. I've since forgotten the details, but I'm pretty sure it was a flying scooter or something of that nature.

So basically I'd spent the entire night dreaming of how to solve a tough advertising problem I never had to begin with. Yeah. Awesome.

I had a good laugh about it afterwards, but felt kinda cheated out of some sweet dreams. Oh well, ad life goes on.

is advertising a cover up?

2008-03-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

I came across this quote from Yves Behar,

Advertising is a price companies pay for being unoriginal.

What a challenging thought. Is it true? Maybe. Can advertising help unoriginal, unneeded products or services? Yes. Should it? No.

Perhaps advertising has gotten a bad reputation because too often we have taken the easy way out by creating ads that will moderately help unoriginal, unneeded products or services. Instead we should either turn the business down or help the companies create original, needed / wanted products or services.

Why don't more advertising agencies create products and services?

Interested in advertising? If so, let’s think about something else for a moment.

2008-02-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

After a long, hard week of working on several massive projects, I would like to “cheat” for my column today and just directly quote a piece of advice from my book, “How to Succeed in Advertising When All You Have Is Talent Second Edition,” rather than giving you something new.

I hope you don’t mind.

The advice comes from advertising legend Tom Burrell, founder and former chairman of Burrell Communications, and I believe that it’s a good piece of advice.

What is it? That you should maintain a life outside of “advertising.”

He believes that it is important for advertising professionals to be Renaissance people and that maintaining a life outside of advertising is how you stay one.

“You have to know what’s going on and be aware of what’s happening,” says Burrell. “If you don’t have a life outside, you don’t have anything to bring to the job.”

I agree. We all need to seek out fresh ideas, something that we all too often fail to do, because we get caught up in the intense stress of meeting our deadlines. What do you think? And what do you do? Please let me know in the comments section. I actually do read them and appreciate your thoughts.

In the meantime, I am going to go read a book. I just hope I can find one on my bookshelf that has nothing to do with advertising.

Ace of all trades

2008-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

The term "jack-of-all-trades" has gotten a bum rap in advertising. If you refer to someone as a jack-of-all-trades you mean they did an OK job at few tasks outside of their specialty.

An example of this would be: you're strapped for time and you have a writer layout his own line.

One might say: "Boy, Andy is a jack-of-all-trades."

On the surface not a bad thing, but most likely the headline is laid out so you get the jist of what's going on but it isn't really ready to be produced. So Andy is actually getting a back handed compliment by the sheer nature of the term.

That gets to me a little, not that Andy didn't excel at laying out the line but for the fact that he has perpetuated the myth of jack-of-all-trades.

Damn you Andy.

A true jack-of-all-trades is someone who excels at a variety of tasks outside of their specialty. It's the kind of term that should be applied to the people who can pick up a pen and both write and draw with it. Some of the best creatives have been known to be jack-of-all trades.

So the next time you feel like calling someone a jack-of-all-trades try calling them something else, like an "odd-jobs-man," until they truly are a jack-of-all-trades.

I can’t divert my eyes from the Oscarnage.

2008-02-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Why do I do this to myself? Every year I loathe the entire spectacle, starting with the announcement of the nominees. The concept, like all “creative competitions” is ill conceived. This we already know. To compare one movie against another, and declare one the winner, and the other, by implication, the loser, is pointless, meaningless, wrongheaded, empty. Yet, in every “creative “ business, some such ritual arises. I’ll never understand it.

So why can’t I use my loathing as a motivation to simply ignore the entire sad mess? Why must I always subject myself to it, to actively feed my loathing? I’ll never understand that either.

The highlight of every Academy Award show, without exception, is the opening monologue by the host du jour. If not for the humor—provided by the host, occasionally by presenters, seldom by the winners—this suffocating exercise in vanity, self-importance and self-congratulation would be devoid of any redeeming qualities.

Is there some Federal mandate that among the nominees for best song there must ALWAYS be at least one upbeat, formulaic, insipid happytune from a 90-minute cartoon movie, invariably including a steel drum somewhere in the arrangement?

Tonight’s evening of excess seems to feature better commercials than that other evening of excess, the Superbowl. Why no hype, no buzz, no “rate the commercials” feature in USA Today the next morning?

Even after I’ve flipped over to the sanitized network version of Dexter to escape the gushing and posturing, I find myself sneaking back for another glimpse of the horror show.

WAIT A MINUTE. They just announced the song from Once won for best song. This never happens. The best song actually won best song. It even beat out the steel drum happytune. Suddenly, for about 20 seconds, all is forgiven. Then it’s back to the marathon of excess and extravagance.

Finally, I summon the will to turn off the tube before they’ve even announced what everyone watching already knows, that the Oscar for best picture will go to No Country For Old Men. I find myself still chuckling, through gritted teeth, at John Stewart’s “GayDolph Titler” joke, and already relishing dreading next year’s cinematrocity.

Exploding people's minds

2008-02-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Today's post is about Olafur Eliasson, one of the coolest modern artists (if not the coolest) ever (well modern anyway I guess). His art is amazing because it's not just a work of art that you look at, think about, and then see how it makes you feel, it makes you feel as you're looking at it. Seeing his exhibit is like being a kid in a fun house all over again. It's all clearly art, but something about it makes your brain tingle and look at it all in a new way. My favorite piece is one where you go in and literally stand a few inches away from an illuminated wall as it changes colors and stare...Uh...it's way cooler than it sounds.

Here's a pic of that piece:

It totally made me rethink art, life, joy, and, in that moment, it made me incredibly happy.

I would love in my career to create something that makes people feel that way. Screw the awards shows and whatever else. Making something like this would be so much better. Wouldn't you want to also? Maybe we should all aim just a little bit higher than we do. I mean think about it like this, some movies win an Oscar. Al Gore made one and it won him the Nobel Prize. Surely we too can do better than Lions and Pencils. There's got to be a higher mark for us out there too. I'll race you all to find it. Good luck all. Enjoy your week.

Human Behavior

2008-02-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

My job is to study human behavior as it relates to product development and marketing. You’d think I would know a whole lot about why people do what they do, but I don’t. Most of what I’m certain about are contradictions:

• We typically don’t mean what we say
• We typically always ask for more information, even though we will never read it
• We spend money we don’t have

Bottom line: we are not very rational. Which makes us hard to understand.

The lyrics from Bjork’s song Human Behavior sum up my argument better than I can:

If you ever get close to a human
And human behavior
Be ready to get confused
There's definitely no logic
To human behavior
But yet so irresistible
There's no map
To human behavior
They're terribly moody
Then all of a sudden turn happy
But, oh, to get involved in the exchange
Of human emotions is ever so satisfying
There's no map
And a compass
Wouldn't help at all
Human behavior

If human behavior were easy to understand our jobs would be boring. Thank God it isn’t. And, don’t get caught thinking it is – that’s too rational.

Go here to hear the song.

Where are all the old masters in advertising?

2008-02-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

Why do so many advertising professionals seem to make their biggest contributions early in their careers? They may stay in the industry, but they stop innovating on their own. I just finished reading Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity by University of Chicago-based economist David Galenson and he might have the answer.

While I have some issues with the Chicago School of Economics, Galenson looked at the careers of prominent painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, and even movie directors, identified when they produced their groundbreaking work, and their individual creative processes. Then, he employed the tools and processes of his discipline to determine if there were any patterns in their work styles, motivation, and/or other attributes.

Based on the results, he argued that there are two distinctly different approaches to creating art:

1) Experimental innovators: “Their goals are imprecise, so their procedure is tentative and incremental. … These artists repeat themselves. … Each work leads to the next, and none is generally privileged over the others. They consider production of a painting (or other type of creative work) as a process of searching, in which they aim to discover the image in the course of making it; they typically believe that learning is a more important goal than make finished paintings (or in producing other artwork). Experimental artists build their skills gradually over the course of their careers, improving work slowly over long periods.” These artists tend to produce their most important, groundbreaking work later in their careers and are the “Old Masters.” Think Michelangelo, Georgia O’Keefe, Alfred Hitchcock, or Mark Twain.

2) Conceptual innovators: These artists are “motivated by the desire to communicate specific ideas or emotions. Their goals for a particular work can be stated precisely, before its production, either as a desired image or as a desired process for the work’s execution. … Conceptual innovations appear suddenly, as a new idea immediately produces a result quite different not only from other artists’ work, but also from the artist’s own previous work. These are the “Young Geniuses.” They tend to produce their most important, groundbreaking work early in their careers. Think F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Orson Wells, or Andy Warhol.

For the health of an artistic discipline, both are needed. The advantage for conceptual innovators is found in the ability to “produce simple solutions for old problems.” The contributions for experimental innovators “typically involve superb craftsmanship” and “are praised for their wisdom and judgment.” And, if I am reading Galeson’s theory correctly, conceptual artists tend to be more self-referential; their groundbreaking work is more of a commentary on previous styles or a reinvention of work done by others while experimental artists tend to be more focused on capturing or conveying unique and/or new perceptions.

Which brings us to advertising. If you don’t make a huge contribution early in your career, you probably won’t get a chance to make one later. And creative directors seek art directors and copywriters who can do that, which virtually eliminates most people who fall into the experimental innovation camp. However, experimental artists are the ones who are better able to build lifelong careers while conceptual artists tend to get in a rut and become dated.

There’s a simple explanation why this tends to be the case. Galenson’s pointed out that experimental innovators are never satisfied with the results of their work. That’s is why they repeat themselves, trying to get it right. On the other hand, Conceptual Innovators stop innovating; they develop their “new solution to an old problem” and then keep using that solution.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just look at Picasso. He worked in many different conceptual styles throughout his career and, at times, even worked in two or more styles concurrently.

I wonder how much richer our field would be if we had more room for both types of innovators. Just imagine the simple solutions of the conceptual innovator coupled with the life-long, keep pushing forward attitude, new perceptions, and dedication to craftsmanship of the experimental innovator.

As Galeson argues, both types of artists could learn from the other. I believe we just don’t have enough experimental innovators in our industry.

What do you think? Who do you see in the industry as a conceptual innovator and who is an experimental innovator? What kind of creative innovator are you? Please click on the comment below and let me know.

Cool magazine insert

2008-02-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

I saw this booklet in this months issue of VICE. The booklet is pretty cool, it's for the video game Rockband (which I rock at). I flipped through it and laughed out loud a few times. The moves are pretty cool but the names they gave them really make the booklet genuinely funny. Have a look at a few of my favorites and then impress your friends with your new moves.

advertising as building a better mousetrap

2008-02-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a quick, thought-post rather than a longer post with more analysis. That said, I'm really looking to solicit feedback on a thought I have.

The thought:

Has advertising transformed itself from being about building brands to building better mousetraps? What I mean is that it appears as if most of the investment by the major ad agencies is in analytics, operations, etc. rather than funding better innovation, insights, creativity, etc. Maybe the operations, analytics and such fuel the creative, but I'm skeptical.

Is this the future of advertising?

Feedback

2008-02-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

You know you have a good Creative Director when no matter what kind of feedback he or she gives you on your work, you always walk away feeling excited.

If the feedback is: "Home Run."
Obviously, it's rush of awesome.

If the feedback is: "Kind of cool, but it's not there yet."
You're pumped, because you walk away with some killer insights on how to make your work a lot better. You thought it was a good idea, but now you see how it could be great. And you know what you need to do to get it there.

If the feedback is: "This is crap, and here's why."
Sure, your ego stings a bit, okay a lot, but you walk away with a new challenge, new motivation, and a lesson learned. You know the feedback is making you a better creative, and that's a good feeling.

So, do you have a good CD? Are you a good CD?

While we're on the topic of feedback, we've been trying out this new format on the blog for a few months now and we'd love to hear what you guys and gals are thinking. What are you liking? What isn't working? What would you kill? Go ahead, play Creative Director and give us your feedback in the comments. Positive or Negative, we thank you for it.

The Insidious Myth of Loyalty

2008-02-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Loyalty is a presumed virtue that has bugged me for decades. In dogs, I will concede it really is a virtue. In certain dull-witted presidents, it’s one among many serious flaws. Generally, among humans, I regard it as a vice or perhaps some form of neurosis. Within the context of advertising, it is something advertisers try to generate toward their brands, and the existence of this type of loyalty continues to be debated.

In the world of business, on the other hand, there simply is no such thing as loyalty, at least not insofar as loyalty is reciprocal. Employees may feel some misplaced sense of loyalty to their employer, but employers, by their nature as essentially profit-generating entities, cannot be loyal to their employees. It’s too costly. Once an employee comes to realize this, that misplaced feeling of loyalty vanishes, or at least it should.

What is it, I’ve often wondered, that distinguishes loyalty from so many of its synonyms, like faithfulness, devotion and steadfastness? I think loyalty is unique in implying a certain blindness or active disregard for circumstances. It is beyond the bounds of reason. Like with dogs.

When loyalty comes into play, it’s always in the face of some reason not to be. Some adverse circumstance, some problem that the person or institution to which you’re loyal is associated with, that, if not for loyalty, would be a reason to distance yourself or repudiate that person or institution.

When an employee leaves a company, especially if the company has treated him well, and more especially, if his/her departure creates a problem for that company, that employee is often characterized as being disloyal. This is the height of disingenuity.

Loyalty, expected of every employee, never seems to be returned by management. When an organization does stand by an employee, it’s always because there is some corporate self-interest being served. Nothing wrong with that. But then, to condemn an employee for acting out of this same self-interest by leaving in pursuit of some other opportunity, is beyond hypocrisy.

So, if your creative director, or his/her boss ever tries to guilt you into pulling that all-nighter, or staying with the agency or whatever, by playing the loyalty card, please feel comfortable disregarding this cheap ploy.

Finally, do not confuse loyalty with commitment, which is a more appropriate emotion to feel toward your employer, as it carries no moral baggage and assumes no reciprocity.

Ads Don't Sell (they let sales happen)

2008-02-16T23:30:00.000-08:00

This is somewhat a response to this week's post by Laurence Minsky, and somewhat a rant. Apologies on both accounts.

I've always had a belief on this that advertising is not intended to make you purchase something. It is intended to make it acceptable for you to purchase something. Either by changing your own perception, or by changing the perceptions of your peer group.

This is why there's problems when market researchers ask if an ad makes a consumer more or less likely to buy a product. Because the answer is no. It won't. Unless the commercial/ad gives new information about the product that changes the consumers actual knowledge of what the hell the product does, it won't make them more likely to buy it. It CAN however make it more ACCEPTABLE for them to buy it, which is what leads to sales in the end.

Ads don't happen in the vacuum of a focus group, they happen in a real world where others react. If one person hates a commercial for Nike, but all their friends loved it, the person's opinion doesn't matter when it comes to their likelihood of buying Nike shoes. It has become acceptable in the peer group in spite of them.

identity spam vs. useful advertising

2008-02-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Identity Spam. That's what will happen in the future. It will happen when advertising uses your personal information in a way that you find inappropriate, harmful, or just annoying. Picture yourself walking in a department store, passing a clothing isle and getting a text message stating there is a sale, or picture yourself browsing the Internet and all the ads have your name in them. Those are two examples of what I think might be seen as Identity Spam.

Now contrast that with the alternate scenario:

Useful Advertising. That's what will happen when advertisers know enough about their consumers that they can tell them exactly what they want to know, when they want to know it. Imagine that you are shopping for a car. You have looked at a few, but haven't found your exact match so you ask the dealership to track your location and tell you when you're near a dealership that has the car for which you are looking. So you're on your way to the grocery store and get a message that you're 1 mile away from a dealership that has your car. That's useful.

As you can tell, I'm trying to illuminate the tension that will exist between our personal information and useful advertising. It is a tricky proposition. When does advertising go from creepy to useful or useful to creepy?

I can think of a few keys to success in this future world:

Control: the consumer must feel in control of how she receives messages.
Transparency: advertisers must tell her why she received a particular personal message and how we know what we know about her.
Respect: advertisers must respect her privacy and willingness to engage us in a dialog.

Parting thought: assume you don't have the right to tailor a personal message to your consumer, not the other way around. Providing useful advertising is a privilege that must be earned, not a right to be taken advantage of by all advertisers.

Perhaps brand advertising has got it wrong

2008-02-15T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have always been unable to reconcile a common argument for the power of branding with my understanding of cognitive dissonance, particularly since the main goals of most advertising is to convince people to change their behavior and try the advertised product.

With branding, action follows belief. In other words, if a person identifies with the brand imagery associated with a product or service, he or she would then form a preference for the brand, leading to a purchase.

But cognitive dissonance shows that belief follows action. For instance, if an individual acts in a way that is not in accordance his or her belief system, the person will change his or her belief system to rationalize the action rather than eliminate the behavior.

Could this mean that promotional marketing is a more powerful tool than branding?

True, give the person a large incentive and he or she might argue that action was a result of the incentive, but give him or her a small incentive and the person would rationalize that purchase because he or she actually prefers it. And that’s how the best promotions work.

(That is not to say that traditional brand advertising doesn’t have a place in the marketing mix, but that place is after the purchase—not before—and its goal would be to establish the rationalization to help the individual explain the behavior. And any advertising before trial would need to be more promotional, because it would be designed to broadcast the behavior changing offer.)

So how do you bring branding and cognitive dissonance together? Please let me know in the comments section.

Indecent Exposure

2008-02-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

You have probably seen the Geico ad of Peter Frampton using his voice box to lend celebrity back up to a woman as she tells a story about insurance. I was a little taken aback when I first saw this ad because I had met Peter Frampton just a few months prior in the lounge at work.

I was working at a large agency in Chicago and Peter Frampton stopped by on tour. It was less rocking than the 1967 San Francisco show that made him famous: he was making his rounds to different ad agencies to promote himself and his music for use in television spots. It felt sort of like a coming out party. Unfortunately, Frampton did not perform any brain-melting talk box solos, but he did answer questions. When asked why he was reaching out to the advertising world, Frampton said that he was seeking exposure: that the advertising medium was the most efficient way to get his music to young listeners.

Frampton evoked another aging classic rocker, John Mellencamp, saying that like The Cougar, he felt that the only way his music would reach the new generation of music listener was if it appeared in ads. That’s why Mellencamp, who formerly bristled at the thought of his songs being used for retail, allowed Chevy to use his music for their sappy This Is Our Country campaign. That’s why Frampton was meeting us in the lounge.

To this day, something about that answer seems misinformed and a little sad. What Frampton and Johnny Cougar did not realize is that their waning popularity among young people wasn’t a matter of exposure. If music listeners of the information generation wanted to listen to either of these guys—or any other established rock act for that matter—they would download the songs from LimeWire or The Pirate Bay. It’s not that music-listeners don’t know who these rockers are, it’s that they are uninterested in listening to them.

The exposure from advertising can be very helpful for bands, but usually only if it is lack exposure that is keeping the band back in the first place. Young bands (Band Of Horses appearing on an ad for the Ford Edge) and obscure older musicians (the classic Nick Drake VW spot) can prosper by appearing on ads. Aging rockers who are struggling for significance? Much less likely.

This week's guest column was written by DJ Mas - a Chicago copywriter and our resident ad-tune spinning house DJ.