On one side I can feel for the ad agency creative and understand Mr: “Fuck People” because I can see the creative who said it understood that if he let opinionated clients and other creatives get in the way of the idea (and we all know this one), it would be watered-down and possibly ruined. Then, having been forced to produce a pile of dross, for which he would be sniggered at from all corners, he would have to walk around the agency (as a friend of mine used to say) wearing a black hood because he’d created a “Ferrero Rocher moment” for “Only distinguished guests at the Ambassador’s Ball”, but of course if you totally disregard who you’re talking to (which I don’t think he meant to say, but inferred by using a swear word), it’s totally wrong.

On the other side, as one may say, if you take out the product, you’ve got “jack shit” (perhaps very pretty but completely meaningless). Not Advertising.

In the middle of all of this you’ve got the consumer, and most consumers say “Fuck Advertising, I’ve got a life” and it seems the longer we live, the stronger this attitude becomes. Now, if someone was really clever, they’d be able to advertise to the older generation. People with dispensable incomes, but they don’t because it’s too difficult, so they advertise to the 18-24 year olds because they are more naiive and easier to target.

Interestingly enough, I’ve seen a new trend over here recently. Girls are obsessed over here with taking shots of themselves pouting for “Selfies” which the Saatchi gallery has now announced as “Art” but now there’s a new craze. Young women in Russia are dating young men who are obsessed with photographing them. They call them “Selfie Boyfriends” They roll up in their cars, jump out into the snow, take a few shots and jump back into their cars again before the -35 weather freeze-frames everyone, then another car turns up and the same thing happens all over again. They seem to have particular hotspots where they congregate too. It’s so weird to watch because it looks like something right out of the “Swinging Sixties”.

The general consensus here seems to be the other way around. “Advertising is fucked” No posters in the streets or on the Metro. Very little Western TV Advertising. so let’s just go and advertise ourselves. It’s almost as if the wheel has turned full circle here whilst in Japan the Metro has gone into overdrive. Sometimes you can walk into a carriage and be blasted with so many banners and signs you just “Don’t know WTF to look at?!@*”

So, what have I learnt from all that? Idea and Impact are incredibly important, but if the media is screwed, so is the campaign, no matter how great it is.
In Paid-For Media there is a degree of regulation, but in Online Media it’s a mud bath. What has muddied the waters of recent is the fact that with since industry 4.0, and build by research have come of age, (see Hornby’s website where they make nothing without pre-order) clients (accountants) are advertising-to-order, which is a worrying trend because everything is becoming geared to value chains. The danger of this, is that, as you know Dave, if you advertise ‘The Flying Scotsman’ to someone who has already bought it, you’re preaching to the converted and not actually advertising, but treading water, and if businesses continue to do that they will busy themselves getting bogged down in the mud of accountancy efficiency and lose ground to the competitor who is advertising. Personally, I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s just a shame that so many blinkered businesses will go bust if they think that selling to the same people is progress, It may look good on the balance sheet for a while, but eventually people become tired and move on and look for something new and fresh unless they are inspired, and I think that’s what Mr “Fuck People” was really trying to say. I just wonder how he could have said it better.