The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix""
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The Brand
The
Future of Advertising
The Targets
The
Future of Advertising
The Grid
The
Future of Advertising
The Swarm
Technology
Making The Message
Meaningful
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.
What
Ever Happened To The
Big Idea?
The Post-Advertising Era Is Here
Confessions Of A" Liar For Hire"
Good, Bad and Ugly At the Moment of Truth
A Post-Advertising "Big Idea".
The Value Of A Paying Pustomer.
Emergence Of the "Empire of One".
All customers Are Created Equal
Playing God An Other Atrocities
the
City That Spawned
The Age Of Advertising..
Fear And Self Loathing In Advertising.
The Greatest Success Metric Is Sales.
Foot In (Word Of) Mouth Disease
In the Begining, There Was The End.
The Rise And Fall
Of The Creative Class
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Champagne Brand
Beer Marketing Budget
Amtrak: Third World Nation On Wheels.
New Music Means
New Marketing.
Automotive Advertising Hits A Dead End.
Has Advertising LostControl Of The
Creative Process?
If AdvertisingIs Meaningless,
What Comes Next?
What Could Make A Grown Man Cry?
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I Have Seen The Future And It Doesn't Work. Springtime. Time to have my hopes for a brighter tomorrow smashed to smithereens by the mundane, derivative and hopelessly ill-conceived rounds of two-buck chuck and cheese cube soirees masquerading as the endless round of university senior showcases that present the work of graduating Graphic Design and Advertising students here in Southern California. This is a view of the future I'm not really looking forward to this year. Since I must admit to my reign of terror as an instructor at New York's F.I.T., SVA and here at CSU, I do have to take a certain amount of blame, I guess. |
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This year, our industry is having the entire rug pulled out from under its feet by clients who honestly believe that, collectively, we wouldn't know a great idea if it jumped up in our laps and stuck its tongue in our belly buttons. IMHO, our only hope is to hire (or steal) the bold, new, adventurous ideas that should be bursting forth from our citadels of higher learning. Isn't that where the bleeding edge of innovative thinking is supposed to issue forth from? Isn't that where, free from the mundane meddling of mindless merchants and middlemen, genius is allowed to run free? Well, isn't it? Er, um... in a word... no. |
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The column I just read was an all time low. Writing about some smelly old train station being torn down? What in the world does that have to do with the advertising industry? One more of those time wasters and I'm outta here. -Grant D. Pittsburgh Don't wait. Leave now and avoid the rush . – hw |
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In years past, I just figured that the people who teach these budding young creative minds must be aware of what is happening in the industry they are preparing candidates for. They had to be, right? Nothing has been more trend-driven than advertising or graphic design. Nothing has been more style conscious. Nothing has reflected popular culture more than the communication arts. The schools responsible for incubating these hot new trend setters and arbiters of "what's next" have had to be consumed with what does come next. But, to my disbelief, they have not been. What I have seen in exhibit hall after exhibit hall, year after year, has been a gigantic tribute to the work and technique of the last century. Nothing new. Nothing fresh. Nothing to take your breath away. Nothing worth paying for, let alone stealing. Why do I have reason to believe that this year will be any different? Well, given the first few shows thus far this year, I got exactly what I expected. I generally go to these shows with only one thing in mind. To see something I haven't seen before. What do I generally see? Everything I have seen before, and seen done a lot better. What don't I see? Anything that resembles the wide spectrum of "new media" that is fast defining our industry. This year, my partner and I are going to these shows ready to hire some young, undiscovered genius. She believes that there's a wealth of underdeveloped talent in those hallowed halls but that school is just the beginning for them. Having taught at the college level, she tells her students to find as much information as they can about the industry that truly interests them. Relying on a teacher to give them what they need to succeed is naive at best. She tells me that the smart ones, the diamonds in the rough, will have armed themselves with more knowledge about the state of the industry than the CD they will be face-to-face with, come interview time. But yet again, we've just walked away disappointed and disheartened. How do so many schools allow students to enter the job market so totally unprepared? It's like graduating architecture majors by telling them, "Don't worry. Nobody will ask if you've taken Physics." So far, the entire spectrum of "new media" has been non-existent, judging from the displays of graduating Seniors seen thus far. Podcasting? Nowhere. Webinars? Nope. Viral video? Nuh-uh. Flash, Java, html, xml? Nada. Heck, at this point I'd settle for a fucking banner ad. In the schools like Art Center and Cal State Long Beach that offer significant Industrial Design programs, the presence of industry sponsors and scholarship awards help to reinforce the commitment of the product design industry to support new talent. But in most Graphic Design and Advertising programs across the country, the presence of sponsorship or industry support is the exception not the rule. As an industry, the ad agencies and design firms seem to not have cared less about supporting each year's fresh crop of practitioners. Talking to some of these graduates seemed to echo the perception of industry ambivalence. "So, do you have a job yet?" says I. "I start at Home Depot next Tuesday" a fairly talented young Design major told me at one show. Further probing uncovers the fact that the actual attaining of employment in their chosen profession has been a subject that has been scarcely touched upon. Oh, for certain there are industry intern programs and the access to design and advertising annuals afforded these hopefuls. Chiat/Day and Richards Group support Art Center and that is to be commended. But where are the IPG's, Omnicoms and WPPs? They seem to be MIA. Why is the work of our future art directors, copywriters, and designers so pitifully out of date and uninspired? Because the signals sent by the advertising industry to the educational institutions turning out these future creative practitioners seems to be, "Uh, good luck with that, kid." Perhaps the reason we don't seem to care about our own future may be the fact that we don't believe we have one. . Stay tuned.
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