Behind The Eight Ball. Ahead Of The Curve.

Safe. A bloody four letter word in advertising. Clients want to play it save. Creative Directors want to play it safe. Risk adverse adverts. But at what cost? Now at the time when everything in our industry is changing, how can anybody afford to play it close to the vest?

Companies like Google, News Corp and Microsoft are shelling out billions to take our business to the next plateau. And they're not even in our business. WPP shelled out a few bucks for Real Networks, but at the end of the day, what's the point? Real Networks can hardly be called a cutting edge technology platform.

The time has come for more than lip service to the cutting edge. Now is the time for all of us to be on fire. Now is the time for us not just to stretch the envelope, but to blow it to confetti dust.

With Silicon Valley set to storm our bastions with legions of greenbacks, it is clear that the technology companies are targeting advertising as the next big profit center to diversify their dependence on version 9.1 of their next new whatever.

Well I for one say, bring it on. I have no fear of the technocrats and their quirky little shops with their quirky little names. I have yet to see a flash intro that actually reached out and touched me with any emotion other than impatience. All of these billions spent on interactive technology, yet not one moment of communication that can rival the kid in the Coke commercial getting that towel from the battle weary Mean Joe Green. Technology connects people but it has a long way to go to connect with people.

That's what's missing from the interactive agencies that seem to be the darlings of the ad pundits these days. Humanity is missing. Even with the advent and proliferation of web video, what do we get from YouTube. Thousands of videos hitting the same lowest common denominator. We get clever. We get vulgar. We get smug. We get sarcastic. But where do we get inspiring? Not on the web.

We get too cool to care, on the web. I am not impressed.

No, I don't think the new in Madison Avenue is going to be coming from the technology side. And as you know, I've all but given up on anything innovative coming out of the misnamed creative departments. Nope. Nothing new there.

If I were a betting man, my money for the new would be those 12,000 out of work screenwriters and teleplay writers who are about to go on strike for the WGA. Their Union is serious about them not working and they will be out of the networks and studios for a very, very long time. What will they be doing with all that time on their hands? Well for one thing, they will be enrolling in the dozens of advertising classes being offered to WGA members by the IAPIA next week.

And we will be teaching them everything they need to know about how to turn their Creative genius into advertising genius. And then, IAPIA will be presenting these new voices to those advertisers who are not living in fear of the next new thing. Those advertisers who are not dedicating their careers to playing it safe.

Just think of it. The most brilliant minds in television and motion pictures set loose on the challenge of reinventing advertising as we know it from the ground up. If I were a client, I'd want a front row seat to that show.

Stay strong.

Comments from Mad160: What Do We Think We're Doing?

"I loved "Marketing Tunnel." Once again you hit the nail
squarely on the head. Bravo ." L.B., Dallas

"Your theories in media that follow their targets through their day is brilliant even if impractical. That's the thing about all these so-called break-through ideas that keep sprouting out of the blogs like yours. They sound great on paper but when you look towards deployment they fall flat on their face. " W.T. London

"I think you are onto something. I hope you keep us posted. I agree. It is time to get real," N.D. Seattle