Another vs.

I've been Manichean of late, seeing the world in black and white, light and dark, good and evil terms. And maybe that's too Old Testament but still, I think the simplicity of looking at poles is valuable.

I just heard a report on NPR about some sharpies who speculate on toxic assets buying up people's dreams and homes sometimes for 1/2 cent on the dollar. That's what made me think of it. That there's another struggle going on--a struggle between the complicated and the simple.

I couldn't for the life of me understand the ways and means of the money men who have exploited our cupidity and brought this country and a few others down but I do know--and this is just commonsense--that anything as complicated and as secretive as what they do can't, simply can't, be honest.

The same, of course, exists in advertising. Man, I sit through wire-frame meetings and long discussions about information architecture and interaction design. It all is so smart and so neat and so logical. But here's the thing, they left out Roman numeral one.
They've forgotten to ask "Is it interesting?"

This is a really simple business that hasn't changed for the last 6,000 years or so because the human brain hasn't changed. Make a simple, compelling promise in an interesting way and people will desire your product.

You can blather on endlessly about paradigm shifts and social nexi and conversations about brands and blah blah blah.

But life is simpler than that. Complicated is boring. Simple is interesting. And nothing matters if you're a screaming bore