Advertising has become bland, designed only to please the client
Whether it’s a car, a perfume, a washing powder or a beer – all advertising ends up looking like all other advertising, just the way all music sounds like all other music, because we’ve trained a generation of experts in making everything bland – argues Dave Trott
Frank Zappa is considered one of the most innovative rock musicians ever.
I just saw an old video of him talking about the music industry.
He said people always ask him why music was better back in the sixties and seventies.
He said: “I’ll tell you why.
What we had then was fat old guys with cigars who didn’t know anything about music and didn’t care.
We came to them with a new sound they said:
‘I don’t like it but I hate this shit anyway, maybe the kids will like it.
Try it, if it sells we’ll go with it, if it doesn’t, we’ll can it.’
So what happened was lots of experimental stuff got made, lots of new stuff, sounds you never heard before.
But then they began hiring young guys who liked the music and thought they knew all about it.
If we came up with something new, these young guys would say ‘I don’t like it, and I know a lot about music.
We’re not putting that record out. Go and do something I like.’
And that’s what’s ruined the music industry.
You’ve got people who think they know, people who think they’re experts.
So they kill everything that doesn’t conform to their opinion.
That’s why everything sounds the same, because these young guys are everywhere now.”
That surprised me.
I thought he could have been talking about advertising.
What we used to have for a client was a marketing director in charge of pricing, and distribution, and a lot more.
Advertising was just a small part of their job.
The client used to say: “I don’t like it but I’m not the target market. You’re being paid to be the experts so if you think it’s right do it, but it better work or else.”
So a lot of interesting work ran.
But, like everything else, it’s has been taken over by experts.
Now we have young clients with marketing degrees who’ve read all the books and passed all the exams.
So nothing that doesn’t fit in with what they’ve learned can slip through.
They come along on shoots, attend recordings, even edits.
They’ve got an opinion about every frame.
So you now have an advertising industry whose sole job is to please the client.
Not to do anything new and surprising.
Because these marketing and advertising experts see it as their job to stop anything like that slipping through.
They’ve all learned the identical things on their marketing courses.
And they think marketing is the same wherever you do it.
Whether it’s a car, a perfume, a washing powder, or a beer.
So all advertising ends up looking like all other advertising.
Just the way all music sounds like all other music.
In advertising just like music, we’ve trained a generation of experts in making everything bland.
Dave Trott is a consultant, author and former ad agency creative director. This article was first published on his blog
In Asia, advertising is bland because all the top creatives got their top jobs by being balls deep in scam and winning awards for it.
So now they only know how to do interesting work for one dimensional scam propositions…when it comes to real work, the briefs are a lot more nuanced, not always black and white….and they have never trained for the possibility to shine at that sort of work.
Another problem is that no one has cracked the small screen yet…the laptop, tablet and mobile….where you just don’t have the space to be creative without getting people to click and click and click….which they are never going to do. All we really see is some stupid picture on Facebook with a lame caption, a frenzied call to action and a hash tag.
Another problem is that agencies now think content is the way to con clients…..How to improve your appearance, 10 ways to eat healthy, how to ace your interview…all that nonsense that anyone can google and get a far more credible article on from a proper magazine.
The only hope lies in activation and film now…the rest is dead.
ReplyNot true that all creatives got there by scam. A lot of this is exactly what the article describes. Why is there scam? Because you can’t do the kind of creative work from actual client briefs any more. The clients don’t come to agencies to solve problems, they come to them to do what they want. It’s become such a risk adverse wasteland where Marketing guys only care about their job. Some small islands of creative work still being done but largely it’s complete client dictated shit. Most creative guys will show you notebooks and concepts that are insightful, creative, and effective, but never get anywhere past concept sketch phase. Lack of trust from client is the #1 killer of idea. #2 is probably ego of the client as the article suggests. Especially in Asia where “saving face” is everything and no one ever says “i don’t know”.
Reply“Not true that all creatives got there by scam.”
Yes true, just the ones at the very top who control all ideas leaving an agency.
“Lack of trust from client is the #1 killer of idea.”
Ask yourself what is responsible for clients’ lack of trust. They have lost the ability to trust the CCOs and ECDs because it isn’t clear whether ideas are being pushed for their benefit… or the agency’s. Also, use business logic….if you give away awards ideas for free, then you are sending a signal to the client that they aren’t worth anything in the first place. So how can you expect clients to pay you handsomely for the mediocre day to day crap you churn out?
ReplyGotta do different shit then.
Replyoh look, it’s the clients fault. never heard that one before…
ReplyIf the client is clueless and everything is so bad, choose a different career. Seeing as all these creatives are so incredibly gifted and have all the answers (if only it wasn’t for those pesky clients) I am pretty sure they will find a new career and excel. After all, it’s not like so many of these old school creatives are over-promoted bluffers is it?
ReplyAgencies, moreso holding companies are equal to blame. Today, the chance to experiment, test and learn with new ideas is better than ever before. But agencies aren’t set up for this, they’re still trapped in the past century. Young clients aren’t afraid of testing exciting new ideas, they just don’t want to apply the old agency model of spend millions and take months to do it. If agencies could move faster, to prototype and test ideas, without spending millions on dumb upfront media buys there would be more exciting work out there. But that goes against the entire agency business model, hence the mediocrity.
ReplyIn advertising everything is bland because it’s done to please the client or the award industry. The audience doesn’t care.
ReplyI agree with the author. But what’s the answer? Is it beyond fixing? Is it fixable? If so, how?
ReplyHave your say