Etch-a-sketch-vertising.

Earlier today Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney, said on CNN “Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign...Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

Fehrnstron, and this is unusual for a Republican, got me thinking. I thought about how often clients and agencies act as if their marketing communications can be shaken up and restarted. Wiped out with no trace left behind. Previous campaigns, previous viewers can be erased or lobotomized--wiped clean from our memories.

Of course, despite the way so many of us act, campaigns--even individual components of campaigns--are not so easily expunged. Nevertheless, we too often flit from one to the next simply because a franchisee's wife doesn't like it or we grow tired of it.

Regardless of the dumbing down of our world, our minds are not so easily toyed with. Our messages therefore must be adroit and impactful.

We can't just shake them away.