Tuesday, November 23, 2010

It's all the same to me.

There's no shortage of articles and blog posts and snarky comments about the sameness of modern advertising. But it occurs to me that you seldom read an article about the sameness of the products our clients make and sell.

I just read an article in Ad Age about a "fast-fooder" called Steak 'n Shake and their hunt for a new agency. As usual in the comments section after the article there are a couple of anonymous voices decrying the work of Steak 'n Shake's former agency.

Well, from cars, to batteries, to fast-fooders, to banks, to airlines, to politicians, to agencies themselves, what does anyone do differently? Everyone is a parity product. So of course advertising becomes parity as well.

Despite what cynics say, and so many believe, our job in the industry is to present useful consumer information in an executionally brilliant way.

It would help if our clients invested more in boldness and differentiation rather than relying on some small creative fillip to make them interesting.

No matter how much lipstick you can slather on a pig, you wouldn't want to kiss it.

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