My Morning [_______________.}

The increasing usage of the phrase "Artificial Intelligence."

Even in what used to be called the advertising industry, which is not supposed to be about intelligence, or data, or science, or technology, we all spend too much time talking about talking about those things. 

We'll do everything we can to try to reach people more effectively, except focus on what reaches people, which is things that are interesting, funny, beautiful or, simply, different. The same things that have always reached people. A bonafide interesting story, well told.

It seems that WPP is buying seven new agencies a week and hiring a CEO for every day of the year so they can pretend they still have a viable business. Let me clarify, so they can pretend they still have a viable business after firing all the creative people who at one time made their business viable.

They invest more in data than they do in art. The entire industry does. And then they say, "there's a flaw in the algorithm. That's why people are blocking our ads." Or they say, "Generation G abjures advertising." They never say, "our ads suck, that's why no one pays attention." Or "our ads are as flat as a plate of piss."

More creative people, more agencies, more clients, more brands are talking about artificial intelligence than about laughter or a good joke they heard or even a rainbow they saw one afternoon. 

I don't understand why we're not talking about the amazing, stirring, 'holy-shit-did-you-see-that' things that are all around us.

As Joyce Kilmer never wrote:

"I think that I shall never see,

An ad made interesting algorithmically.
Unless, in fact, we use our head,
The industry is wholly dead. "

On Monday, September 9th, I read about this book below, "1001 Movie Posters." On Monday, September 9th, I ordered this book below, "1001 Movie Posters." On Friday, September 13th, I received this book below, "1001 Movie Posters."

I suppose for some it might be considered prohibitively expensive. It cost me about $70. Roughly, in my estimate, what the average hipster pays per week for chain-store coffee. Or what they pay for two drinks at an expense-account private-banker bar in New York.

I throw nickels around like manhole covers but I couldn't see any good reason for not buying "1001 Movie Posters." If it extends my useful career for ten minutes, it's paid for itself.

Three points here today.

One. Human intelligence trumps the artificial sort. Laughter trumps almost everything. 

Two. Books, which organize and make tactile information, trump digital renditions. You can hold beauty in your hands, not see it through a veil of pixels. And

Three. From a communications point of view, 99-percent of advertising and marketing practitioners have forgotten what is evident in the 1001 posters, some of which I've pasted below. Effective communications generally are made with:

a) Stunning design--you haven't seen before.
b) Memorable type/copy.
c) Design hierarchy.

About 99-percent of the websites and ads I see online have none of the a,b,c I've written above. They're just a hodgepodge of A.I. spin-art that made a committee of degree-holders happy. They're a tale told by a committee-iot, full of compromise and bad taste, signifying an abuse of  the viewer.

Why is every online ad--and every TV commercial--so devoid of the a,b,c above. Oh. It's gone through seventeen rounds of approval and it's enhanced by research, data, best practices and AI. Even ads by ad agencies advertising for creative people look like they were designed by a short-bus bot. See above.

If you want to do good work look at good work. Not just what won purported awards from a purported award show. Work that lit fires and stirred souls.

Usually if I have a call early in the morning, someone on the call says, "I haven't had my caffeine yet." 

I wish I heard people say, "I haven't heard any Brückner, yet."

Or "I haven't looked at a Klimt, yet." Or "I haven't read any John O'Hara, yet."

Those things can wake you up, too.

And should.

 

The End Slide.

I think it started with the rise of PowerPoint.

Another reason to dislike PowerPoint--as if we needed more.

But along the time agencies started presenting creative via PowerPoint, or PDF or Figma or whatever--along the time we started presenting electronically, someone decided to add at the end of creative presentations a concluding slide that read, "Thank You."

I can't imagine doing that when we used to present in person on foam-core. But today, every presentation seems to end with a page that looks like this.

I suppose life could be worse. We could, and many agencies do, end even more treacle-ly--with something like this:

Some agencies make matters even worse. They're so thankful, they're so exclamatory, they're obsequiously gushy. If you're kowtowing that much after a presentation, you're really bending over backwards too far.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that we aren't thankful for our clients and their business. But when you're showing them work, 

I'm not sure we should have to thank them for their attention and time. That's not "thanks-worthy." It's the nature of the relationship. It's part of the value exchange. 

I dunno. 

Any of these end-slides make more sense to me. Even if they would get me fired.