Engagement Ring.

Here's something that just doesn't seem to make any sense at all. If more and more people are opting out of being advershouted at, and marketers are demanding more and more accountability for the efficacy of their marketing investment, then when do the people signing the checks begin to realize that nothing is working?

Is the reason our industry is dragging its feet on performance metrics because what we do is not performing? Are the people who are demanding these various forms of accountability simply covering their collective asses for the reality check they know is bound to be presented for payment? Are we simply traveling in a continuous circle waiting for somebody to break ranks and show us the way outta here, before the entire house of cards comes crashing down around our heads?

Marketer David Wolf dropped this one on me the other day on his terrific blog, Ageless Marketing. David noted that marketing guru Philip Kotler recently stated, "Most television advertising is a waste of money ... many marketers are clueless about how effective their strategies are," and went on to provide these words from a recent Cap Gemini Ernst & Young report: "70% of car advertising in broadcast and print media in the U.S. is a waste of money."

How many people have to keep saying the same thing over and over before the C-Level starts to pay attention? Where are the shareholder watchdogs when a company like Disney can write down an entire operating division (Disney Wireless) because of mis-guided marketing? ("Hey kids, get mom and dad to buy you this new phone that let's them spy on you at the mall.") Or GM pushing the Hummer and the Escalade while gas prices go through the roof and hybrids are getting a free pass to the carpool lane? How long has the CFO been on crack? How many question marks can I use in one paragraph?

Everybody is going on and on about the need to engage the customer. Yet the more you read, the more you realize that none of these people have the foggiest idea as to how to go about it. Or if they do, they lack the guts to take a stand.

Margaret Wheatley, co-founder of the Berkana Institute and author of, "Leadership and the New Science" has come the closest to giving us a reason why,

"I learned that people get frightened if asked to change their world view. And why wouldn't they? Of course people will get defensive; of course they might be intrigued by a new idea, but then turn away in fear. They are smart enough to realize how much they would have to change if they accepted that idea. I no longer worry that if I could just find the right words or techniques, or describe multiple case studies, I could convince people. I no longer expect a new worldview to be embraced quickly; I don't know if I'll see it take root in my lifetime. I also know that people are being influenced from sources far beyond anyone's control. I know many people who've been changed by events in their lives, not by words they read in a book. These people have been changed by life's great creative force, chaos."

So there you have it. One of our great business leadership intellects puts the problem of change right were it belongs; on the fear of change that infects every business organization above the rank of lemonade stand in our nation.

Ms. Wheatley's book is no obscure academic text, even though it is on every college B-School reading list that counts. "Leadership and the New Science" was named the Best Management Book of the Year by Industry Week magazine, one of the top ten books of the past decade by CIO Magazine, and one of the top ten business books of all time by Xerox Business Services according to Amazon.com. And it was first published in 1992.  

People have remained too scared to change for a long, long time.

Certainly a great many of the tenets of our own theories of Adaptive Branding owe a great deal to the thinking of Margaret Wheatley and her fellow travelers in chaos theory. But when it comes to all of this talk about engagement marketing and meaningful customer Interaction, it appears that the first level that this work must be done is on the clients themselves. Which means that we are all doomed to keep going around and around in the same circles of endless engagementisms between agency, client, blogosphere, ad pubs, pundits, agency until someone actually has the guts to reach out and try this "New Science" on some real, honest-to-goodness members of the audience to see if it actually works.

Most of the devotees of the "New Science" approach to business management state that every great change is preceded by a period of darkness and despair.

So perhaps we are entering the Dark Ages of Marketing. Anybody for an Inquisition?

Stay strong

Comments from Mad158: Ma(Duh!)son Avenue,

"I don't understand what all this fuss about diversity is about. Advertising is a special skill set. If you don't have the skills, you don't get the job. T.R., Los Angeles

Why is it you can't give credit whan the industry does something positive? R.A. Salt Lake City

I agree with you. Nobody will hire those kids accept for black or hispanic agencies. Better to train them in IT or Nanotech. T.R. New York City

Advertising should be ashamed for its miserable record of biased hiring practices. They paid lobbiests hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the city back off rather than just doing the right thing. Don't hold back. Nobody has the guts to tell it like it is, D.K. NYC

I can't understand why agencies will buy a minority agency but not hire minority job applicants. H.M. Brooklyn