There are things that burst on the national political scene and dominate the "national debate" that are usually so trivial and unimportant but somehow they are picked up by the networks and they overwhelm things like wars and global warming.
We've had focus over the past few elections on such major issues as American-flag lapel pins, flag burning, french fries, haircuts, pants suits and shooting wolves from small aircraft. I would argue that none of these topics deserves any attention whatsoever. But I suppose because they have a certain accessibility they become symbols for larger issues.
The advertising trade press is currently all agog about the notion of crowd-sourcing. There's now a Crispin spin off that bases its entire offering on it. There are crowd-sourcing conferences and crowd-sourcing experts.
To my mind, our industry has almost always been infected by crowd sourcing. Focus groups, who likely approved the design of the Pontiac Aztec, above, seem to me to be an example. A bunch of people who individually know nothing when they're bunched together know more than people who have years of experience. Likewise, think of all the clients who ask their wives, or the janitor or show an ad around the office. This too, is crowd sourcing.
Fiddling with asinine topics like crowd sourcing amid the tectonic changes going on in our industry is like arguing about what kind of screen doors to put on a submarine.
