The Road Not Taken. (Apologies to Robert Frost).

I just ran across a sign that really rubbed my goat the wrong way.

While I’m probably making too big a deal of the language on the sign, I really think it speaks to the decay of the advertising industry as it’s been subsumed by the modern corporate technocracy. You know, holding companies.

I won’t tell you where I saw the sign or who it was about. That’s not important. Because the truth is, it’s the sort of sign you could see in the lobby of about a hundred agencies.

The words I objected to were these:

“We look forward to partnering together to create a World Class marketing organization.”

This is not me being persnickety.

We are not in business (I pray that we’re not) to create World Class marketing organizations. Creating organizations is not our reason for being.

No.

We’re in business to sell stuff.

To make brands more valuable.

To gain customers.

If a baseball team created “a World Class front office,” and proceeded to win 63 games and lose 99 and finish in the cellar, that would not be considered good.

If a president had “a World Class cabinet,” but proposed legislation that was retrograde and cruel, that would not be considered good.

We don’t exist to create, foment and support bureaucracy. 

We exist to create, foment and support brands. Oh, and to sell products or images.

To fuck up Robert Frost:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged on Mad Ave, and I—

I took the one not consulti-fied,

And that has made all the difference.

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