Dry wall from China.

I heard a report on National Public Radio on toxic dry wall that over the past few years we've been importing from China. This dry wall is making many who come into contact with it ill. It turns homes, literally, into toxic assets.

It seems to me that dry wall has always been a "substitute good." That is, a material that takes the place of a more expensive alternative. In any event, builders looked for ways to do their jobs more cheaply, either to compete more successfully with other builders or to offer their products at lower prices.

We in the agency business are doing our utmost to proffer the advertising equivalent of Chinese dry wall. We lower our prices, we find cheaper alternatives. Holding companies pit one of their agencies against another, may the lowest price win. According to a BBC report, "Residents of houses containing Chinese drywall say it smells like rotten eggs and has given them breathing problems."

I don't know about you but 99% of all ads smell like rotten eggs too.

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BTW, over two years ago I wrote a post called "The Low-Bid Economy." http://adaged.blogspot.com/2007/08/low-bid-economy.html Sometimes I wish I weren't so damned prescient.