Oktober 2011

The Universal & The Transient in Advertising

In any serious field of study there is a healthy tension between what is universal and what is transient. This is true in art, literature, history, architecture, science, and virtually every other discipline.

It would be inconceivable to have a serious contemporary writer who was not familiar with the works of Tolstoy, Proust, Joyce, or Shakespeare. It would be unthinkable to have a

Sometimes This Feels Almost Useful

Every now and then I receive an email from someone, particularly a young person, that makes me feel like this blog actually has some value. Here's one from a young man working in Silicon Valley. Name withheld to protect the innocent.

Hi Bob,

I wanted to drop you a quick line to say a sincere thank you for your writing. I came across your blog a couple of months ago and have since been reading

On The Verge of Convergence?

It's been about 15 years now that we've been waiting for "convergence" -- when the TV and the computer would join hands and walk blissfully down the aisle.

Out chattering digerati keep telling us it's right around the corner, and like much of what they've told us, it's nowhere in sight. Chalk up another loser to knucklehead futurology.

Not only has convergence not occurred, we have experienced

You Should Read This

I don't often do this, but today I am forgoing the business of shooting my mouth off in favor of directing you to another blog post that will provide you with a great deal more value.

The post is called 'Engagement': Fashionable Yet Bankrupt on a blog called Canalside View. It is written by Martin Weigel who is Head of Planning at Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam.

It is outstanding and I urge you to

Ill.I.Am

There are so many maddening aspects of contemporary life that it's difficult to single out any one in particular. However, one that is exceptionally exasperating to me is the notion that entertainers have something important to tell us and are entitled to air time to promote their views.

Let's start with actors. Actors are good at pretending. That's their talent, pretending. They can pretend

Bottom-Up Branding

If you need some motivation to stick a knife in your head, ask your average advertising whiz-kid about "brands."

He'll go on for weeks about brand integration and brand expectations and brand experiences and brand advocates and brand relevancy and brand messaging.

He knows everything there is to know about brand babble. And almost nothing about brand building.

Perhaps the most expensive and

Origins Of Postcoherent Advertising

A few days ago we discussed the idea of "postcoherent" advertising, i.e., advertising that has evolved to the point that it is baffling to viewers.

I commented that I thought "postcoherence" was a trend in advertising, and several readers seemed to agree.

It seems remarkable that an industry that is supposed to be all about communication could grow to be so effete that people can't even

Testing Social Media Theory

The research department here at Ad Contrarian World Headquarters has asked me to help them conduct a little project.

You see, we've been ragging on social media maniacs for quite some time.

We've gone on record saying that we believe social media is a good vehicle for some tactical things -- short-term retail promotions and customer relations, for example. But we've also said that social media

Why The Web Has Been A Crappy Ad Medium

Digiday is running a 12-part series called Why Hasn't The Web Lived Up To Its Brand Promise? This is just an awkward, mealy-mouth way of asking "why has the web been such a crappy ad medium."

In the first installment, Digiday talked to some CEOs and presidents of companies who have been instrumental in either creating or selling web advertising.

The real news is that for the first time we're

Bulletin: Ad Campaigns Now Dead, Too

Okay, so we all know that advertising is dead, and television is dead, and everything related to LBTI (Life Before The Internet) is also dead.

It was just two weeks ago that I reported here that I was dead (here's proof.)

Now it turns out that Ad Campaigns Are Dead, too.

It's all part of the new age of Idiot Journalism being practiced in the advertising and marketing press. Here's how it

What Steve Jobs Taught Us About Advertising

I pompously call myself The Ad Contrarian, but Steve Jobs was a true ad contrarian.

He knew what his company stood for and didn't care what you thought. He assiduously avoided every false turn in the "marketing fad of the month" playbook. Reportedly, the only research he ever did was to ask himself whether he liked something or not.

In his own way, he taught us everything we need to know about

Volunteering For Advertising

In the early days of the web, it was thought that the web would hasten the downfall of the "interruption" model of advertising and be the catalyst for the rise of the "permission" model.

In other words, the old paradigm wherein your favorite TV show or radio program would be interrupted by advertising was supposed to die. A new paradigm would arise in which you would grant permission for brands

Postcoherent Advertising

Have you been noticing what I've been noticing?

Is the ad business cultivating a movement toward "postcoherence?"

Have you been seeing a type of advertising that is logical to the people who create it, but is bewildering and incoherent to the people who are supposed to respond to it?

This type of advertising seems to be popping up in all media, but most evidently on TV and on line. Watching