Three things made me realise this in a moment of happy coincidence yesterday...
First, the ever-sharing Craig O'Brien forwarded me a link to this presentation - a whopping 237-slider on something called Post Digital Marketing - and, whilst I've only made it through the first 100 or so slides, there's a wealth of quotability going on there.
Most notable was this one:
'As the air around our citizens thickens with unwanted messages and interruptions, the goal should not be to add to this unwantedness, but to create deliberate and appreciated value'.
Too right! Why on earth should anyone give a shit about more 'me too' nonsense? And yet, that's what the vast majority of clutz-headed advertisers do, mistakenly opting to keep their heads below the parapet, tick some corporate boxes (of which 'innovation' rarely seems to be one) and rattle the bucket of swill just a little more loudly.
Second thing: a conversation with the ever-ranting Brian Dargan, whose view of the parapet is of sub-molecular proportions as he spits in the eye of convention at every turn. At a recent interview he had with a leading London ad agency, the Strategy Head there bemoaned a lack of real ideas - instead just a flow of identikit pedestrian ideas that fail to ignite even the most cursory of conversations.
Have we run out of ideas? Have they all been had? Or have all the ones in the 'traditional canon of shouty shouty advertising' been had and we're a bit nervous of omitting the big logos and headlines at every turn in favour of subtlety, warmth, art and value?
Why, oh why, do people think that 'doing more of what we've pretty much always done' is good advertising?
And the third was a David Ogilvy example pictured above: A Guinness ad that explains the difference between types of oyster.
Does it patronise me? No, it's actually rather interesting. Does it beat me about the head, shouting at me to buy Guinness? No, instead it walks the walk of a brand I'd like to identify with because it is genuinely edifying; an intelligent brand.
Above all, I actually get something out of it. Oh, and I happen to associate Guinness with this value - and therefore like it all the more (especially with oysters).
And that was over 40 years ago - before the advent of interactive media that should, godammit, make it that much easier for brands to be useful.
And yet all I hear in evidence of brands being useful now is Nike-fucking-Plus.
Come on. To those of who work in this fated / feted industry, I implore you: try to create one piece of advertising in your life that advances something of human value.
It might just save the industry. And I may even be prepared to go client-side some day if that's what it takes.
