The Post-Advertising Era 1.6. Advertisers Are Paying Full Price,
But Nobody's Paying Full Attention.

As I sit here in my loft overlooking my television set and hearing Jimi Hendrix on Jack FM, I'm holding a phone conversation with my art director on the importance of setting everything in Futura Bold, watching six different stories develop on CNN headline news, checking my e-mail on my laptop, and reading Ad Age's coverage of VW going to Crispy/Bogus.

Every one of these inputs are advertising supported media. I must admit, I sit here paying attention to exactly none of it.

VOLUME
FIFTY-THREE
WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER, 7 2005

I had heard the rumor over at BET that Pepsi had just dropped rapper Kayne West for his off the script rant (on the NBC Red Cross Telethon this past Sunday) at the Federal Government and the current administration for dragging their heels to come to the aide of 80% black New Orleans and Mississippi,

Brand Pepsi had my full attention. If the rumor was true, a brand that had spent billions wooing urban consumers ( who make up more than 70% of the cola market) was about to shoot its leg off distancing itself from a guy who may just become the poster boy for "free speech" in America.

I loved the interview with Angela Glenn. Does she have a boyfriend? JH, Phoenix

Do you think a woman with cajones like that would have a "boy" anything. Angela will be guest editing for me while I'm out of town for a few weeks.-HW

Which indicates the strong influence of media content vs. media advertising in the Post-Advertising Era. Not only has brand messaging been watered down by the shift from mass market media to segmented market media, but now our obsession as an audience for multi-input information is slicing the communications value of advertising even thinner.

Until something like the Kayne West incident comes up. Or Coke's troubles in India. Or a severed thumb found in a salad from Applebees. Until brands make headline news, advertising headlines will only be marginally invasive.

So how does all of this fragmentation relate to consumer share of mind? Well share of mind is becoming less and less static. Consumers no longer keep brand messages like my "Just For the Taste Of It. Diet Coke" in their heads. These messages come in at the sub-threshold level with the weather report and wash out with the mayor of New Orleans projecting 10,000 dead in the wake of Katrina.

Several people told me that the Katrina coverage on NBC was sponsored by "some financial company" but couldn't remember which one. And I could find no mention of such sponsorship in the trades.

The national television networks are no longer talking about share of mind or brand recall. Now it's all about "cultural influence" and other buzzwords that can't be measured.

So even the networks are abandoning their efforts to quantify their effect upon their viewer's retention of the advertiser's message.

What does that leave for the advertisers? Here they are. Billions of dollars in shareholder value sitting on freight car sidings, auto dealer lots, container yards, truck stops, warehouses and retailer's shelves. Trillions of dollars in production capacity strung out in supply chains that crisscross the globe. And their end-user? Their customer? The guys and gals with the dollars to make it all worth while? They, my dear friends, are not paying the least bit of attention.

TV spots? Yawn. Print ads? Ho-hum. Radio spots? Huh? Banner ads. Ugh. Out-of-home? Ahhh-choo!

So it's time to get ruthless Park Avenue. Time to get serious Michigan Avenue. Time to stop mucking around, Wilshire Blvd.

It's time to get America's attention back. Not with your "Me Too," "So What," "Who Cares" products. America's interest in all that left the station a long, long time ago. Now the folks who are waiting on the platform are waiting to see what American business is made of.

Let's take a look at what American business is made of.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told the Feds to "get off their asses" and do something to save his city from certain death last week. He is now projecting a death toll of more than 10,000 souls. 40,000 for the impacted area. The government is still not paying full attention.

100 of America's largest corporations stepped up to the plate. But all they could muster was an average of $1.5 million a piece.
$1.5 Million from the people who brought you $386,301,369.68 worth of advertising EACH DAY in 2004. Obviously Business is still not paying full attention.

So these guys are spending $386,301,369.68 every day, on something that less and less people are paying attention to...every day.

There is something very wrong with this picture. Being a stockholder in a number of these companies, I'm very concerned about shareholder value if word of this gets out. The equity markets will most certainly start paying attention. It doesn't make me feel good that my former client Ford Motor Company ( I told America "Quality Is Job 1") decides to help out by " offering customers affected by Hurricane Katrina the opportunity to defer up to two vehicle payments".While Toyota "will contribute $5 million to Red Cross," according to CNN.

So here is what I intend to do about it. It's all well and good for me to say, hey everybody, this is the Post-Advertising Era. So what?
Now is the time to make that mean something to the people that can use it the most. $386,301,369.68 could go a long way towards rebuilding the great city of New Orleans.

It can also go a long way towards rebuilding the stature of the 100 American corporations who figure $1.5 million is just fine for helping out in what is shaping up to be the biggest tragedy/travesty in American History.

$386,301,369.68 or what American business throws away every day on TV, radio, print and outdoor that fewer and fewer of us are paying full attention to, will certainly get us to pay attention. Especially, if American business puts it to better use. Like the rebuilding of New Orleans.

I'll be looking for all the help I can get, to get American business to do the right thing with their $386,301,369.68. If you want to help, click here. Time to shut up. Time to step up.

GAS WAR... an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It 's worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by the end of summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth, offered this good idea: This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!

The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that, BUYERS control the market place, not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How?

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I sent this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000).and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But a mathematician worked this out for me.. so trust me on this one.) How long would all that take?

If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Stay tuned.