Since the late '90s with the rise of dot con artists, something has been conspicuously missing from advertising. While advertisers (and movie makers and television producers) were wallowing ever-deeper into pools of smut, gerbil-shooting and fart jokes, intelligence just about vanished. When was the last time you read, or heard, a reasoned arguement in an advertisement?
I'm hoping that the downturn in the world's economy will ring in the demise of
botox-vertising. Stuff that might look ok, but is really nonsense pumped-up and silicon-injected--it might lure you in but ultimately, it won't stand up to closer inspection.
Oh, I guess you could say I'm waiting for David Abbott to return, or McCabe, or Amil Gargano, or Martin Puris. When ads, unabashedly sold. When they appealed to both your head and your heart--rather than just sophomoric baseness.
"Give your child an unfair advantage in life."
"The man who controls corporations ought to be able to control his own car."
"Lose the ability to slip out of meetings unnoticed."
"What do I need a computer for anyway."
You know, ads that worked.
