sutton017

There was a time when being a copywriter was a lot simpler. It wasn't simple, but it was simpler. We would be given a stack of documents about 1,000 pages deep -- primary research, industry information, briefing documents, strategy hypotheses, meeting memos, competitive category ads, focus group transcriptions, and no shortage of opinions and mandatories -- and our job was to turn this mess into 30 seconds of persuasive copy. It was a rigorous exercise. There were some copywriters who could never master the art of rummaging through a pile of paper to find the essence of what needed to be said. There were some who were very good at finding the essence, but not very good at finding an interesting way to say it. The very best could do both. But the burden of being a copywriter today is much less straightforward. Today's copywriter is not really sure what she is. Is she a brand builder, a click maximizer, a storyteller, a community builder, a content provider, a conversation starte...

There was a time when I taught science for a living. Don't get the wrong idea, I know very little about science. The only reason I was doing it was that it was impossible for the New York City Board of Education to find enough qualified people. Later on in life I served for a year as Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences. Once again, it had nothing to do with my credentials in science, it had to do with their need to do better marketing for their scientific endeavors. However meager my background in science, hanging around with scientists and science teachers taught me one thing very clearly -- there is a big difference between facts and bullshit. And to put it simply, in the advertising industry the science we get is terrible. It is mostly conducted by interested parties with a point to prove. In the real world of science, research that is conducted by interested parties is viewed with great skepticism. In the real world of science, rese...

Today, about a million or so people will pack the streets of my home town, Oakland CA, for a parade to celebrate the Golden State Warriors who last week won their 3rd National Basketball Association championship in 4 years. This is a phenomenal achievement that has been equaled by very few teams in the history of the NBA. The NBA has a few things in common with the ad industry. For one thing, management people and coaches are highly mobile. Steve Kerr, head coach of the Warriors, was once General Manager of the Phoenix Suns. Alvin Gentry, head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans (who the Warriors defeated in the Western Conference semi-finals) was most recently assistant coach under Steve Kerr with the Warriors. As a result of management and coaching mobility there are very few secrets in the NBA. The systems, the data, and the tactics are all well-known to everyone and are easily interchangeable. While there are some management groups and some coaches that are certainly superior to oth...

There is evidence all around us that advertising is in a downward spiral, characterized by... Consumer disgust with advertising Loss of confidence in agencies Massive confusion by brands about how and where to advertise Widespread belief that advertising has become less effective Uncontrolled fraud and corruption One of the reasons for this nosedive is that the ad industry is in a cycle of stupidity that it can't seem to extricate itself from. The longer the silly fantasies of online advertising go unchallenged, the more entrenched they become. The more entrenched they become, the more they seem axiomatic. The more they seem axiomatic, the less willing people are to challenge them. The less people are willing to challenge the childish nonsense that marketers have to come to accept as fundamental to their strategies, the further the ad industry will deteriorate. Here is some of the foolishness that brands have come to believe, and that few are willing to challenge... Consumers want ...

If you’re new to the business world, you may soon find yourself in a marketing meeting and become very quickly disoriented. This is because marketing people speak a language that is disconcerting to the human ear and mystifying to the human mind. To help you through this bewildering experience, here at The Ad Contraria n Global Headquarters we have created a glossary of terms that can help you understand what marketing people actually mean when they talk: Engage - bother Brand architect - account executive Authentic - true sounding Transparent - natural looking Content - anything on the web Branded content - anything on the web with a logo Compelling content - content Conversation - retweet Follower  - stranger who wants something for nothing Advisor - LinkedIn term for unemployed Community - strangers who once clicked Meaningfulness - (no one knows) Branding - anything with a logo on it Activation - when marketing people actually do something Workshop - meeting Rou...

This week, as the GDPR gets closer to implementation, we can expect to hear a lot of noise from digi-weasels here in the US explaining to us why we need to allow wide data collection as a fair "value exchange" for the free access we get to online services. This argument is total bullshit. Let's start at the beginning. First, the true part. The web provides us with amazing services and they are essentially all free of cost. I don't think there is any doubt that most of us don't really appreciate the benefits we get from free web services. The duopoly of Google and Facebook provide us with a whole lot of valuable stuff that we pay nothing for. Especially Google. They are entitled to recompense for the amazing services they provide. And they are well compensated for their efforts. They are two of the most profitable companies on the planet. And essentially all of their profit comes from advertising. This is no different from how other media, like TV, radio, and magaz...

A few days ago the great Hugh McLeod (of Hughcards fame) posed the following question on Twitter: "What is it that clients want these days, exactly? I find it increasingly hard to tell." As soon as I saw this I started to type. Without thinking I wrote, "They want the fruits of advertising without the cost of advertising."  It was one of those instances where something writes itself without me. And as I was writing I thought, yeah, that's what they want. That's what the social media and brand content fantasies are all about. They're about trying to get something for nothing. And like all schemes to get something for nothing, they are doomed to fail. Ten years ago we were fed a delusion. The delusion was that consumers loved brands and wanted to "join the conversation" about brands, and read about them, and share their enthusiasms for them with their friends. It was an infantile delusion but it was powerful. One of America’s great geniuses from...