Lee Clow's next. . .
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 1:23AM 
Should be your revolution
Well I'm imagining that your question right now is. . .who the hell is Lee Clow?!?
Let me introduce you. Lee is the Global director of media arts for TBWA\Worldwide (one of the most creative ad firms in the world). He's the brains behind the "Think Different" campaign (celebrating iconoclasts from Muhammad Ali to Einstein) that would in 1997, pull back the curtains and introduce a new Apple to the world that would, just a few short years later, become the embodiment for innovation.
He's the brains behind the Energizer Bunny, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, and the Adidas's "Impossible Is Nothing" campaign to name a few. Now according to Lee in a Fast Company article from June of this year, his own next revolution is something he calls "media arts," a term that describes how brands can be made inseparable from culture. He believes every brand touch point needs to be treated as if it were an opportunity to seduce an audience. He then goes on to say that "when advertising is done well, I think it can become a part of our culture. When it's done badly it becomes visual pollution."
I couldn't agree with him more.
One of my favorite lines by Hugh MacCleod that drives this point home says "if you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they'd punch you in the face." Classic.
Now technically we don't need Lee or Hugh to tell or show us that we really don't like the way advertising is intrusive in our lives. That's why we flip the channels at commercial breaks or a partial reason we TiVo our favorite television shows. Its one of the reasons why HBO rocks. Great entertainment. No commercials.
Other indicators that you should jump in the revolution mosh pit with Lee are popping up everywhere. Post Advertising wrote in July that Conde Nast (a worldwide magazine publishing company) lost 1,680 ad pages in September—traditionally an ironclad month for magazines—vs. last year. Ad Age recently spoke about how their own research is uncovering how advertising is becoming less and less effective. And two new books look at the major upheavels in marketing: The Chaos Scenario makes the case that advertising as we know it is about to be obliterated and Ad Nauseum: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture suggests that we should all be dancing with the stars on its grave.
At the end of the day it's imperative that organizations understand the first rule of business is the first rule of life - adapt or die. Advertising needs to re-invent itself. It needs to understand convergence. It needs to be cultural. It needs to engage us in conversation. Its got reeeallly bad habits that need to change in order to figure out how to offer us value. And like my momma use to say to me when I was little and I kept "messing up" and "doing things wrong" (that could land me in undesirable situations). . . "You need to get this through that thick skull of yours" - Advertisers . . . are you listening to my mom!!
Reader Comments (3)
I do recall, though, during the internet boom that people were offered to pick and choose the industries that were most appealing to them/us. Marketers, at that time, thought themselves to be "more in touch with the market" but the choices were still dictated. Granted, businesses have been successful with their strategies but are loosing ground. Now old school advertising would put up stereo-types to say "we understand your culture" but that ish aint gonna fly this time. It never really did with me anyway. I felt embarassed and insulted. Anyway culture has so many dimensions that it could never be pigeon holed so therein lies the great task of comprehensive research.