There's a great Op. Ed. piece in the latest Esquire Magazine (Feb. 2012) titled "A short prayer for Advertising - Please bring back great commercials" written by Stephen Marche. It's quite a fascinating observation on what advertising has become and what we've almost lost. "What could be more old-fashioned than actual ads? Everywhere…life has become advertising and advertising has become life". Mr Marche's keen point is that in a time when advertising has secreted itself into every facet of our lives, it has lost its once essential glamour. 'Ads', those great imposing inventions of the 20th century, reflected our taste and our culture, showed us what we liked and what we were like. In them we found humour and wit, banality and grace. We knew 'what were good ads and good products and what were bad ads and bad products". Now we are increasingly and silently cajoled and sold in a time when product placement is deemed as important as brand building.
It's unfortunate that 'advertising and honesty' are seen as a contradiction in terms. (i've always treasured the term 'the truth well told' but that's another blog). I fear that in the not too distant future, when the 30 second TV commercial is only an oddity dragged out to entertain us during extravaganzas such as the Super Bowl, we may miss the 'honesty' of a well crafted commercial.
Read the full article, you're sure to enjoy it. Either buy Esquire at your newsagent (US edition), or download their award winning app from iTunes.
Creating talk. Generating commerce.™
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