#332/Jan 26, 2025

We'll start with a little walk down memory lane and have a look at some quotes from the clowns who play 'advertising expert' in our industry. Then we'll compare their babbling with the viewpoints of the consumers they claim to know so much about.

1. Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google)
   "The more digital and personalized advertising becomes, the more it becomes a part of the experience. Consumers will like online ads because they are tailored to their needs and preferences."
2. Bob Liodice (CEO, Association of National Advertisers - ANA)
   "Consumers are increasingly seeking relevant and personalized content, and online advertising allows for that. It’s no longer about broadcasting messages to the masses but engaging individuals in meaningful ways. Consumers will ultimately prefer online advertising because it speaks to their needs and interests."
3. Mark Zuckerberg (Co-Founder, Facebook)
   "The future of advertising is going to be about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. If we get it right, consumers will love it because it's more personalized and helpful."
4. Sheryl Sandberg (Former COO, Facebook)
   "Online advertising has the power to be less intrusive and more relevant to consumers than traditional advertising. As it becomes smarter, people will prefer it because it aligns more closely with their interests."
5. Larry Page (Co-Founder, Google)
   "If we continue to optimize it, consumers won’t just tolerate it—they’ll prefer it because it will give them access to things they care about."
6. Marla Kaplowitz (Former CEO, 4A’s)
   "Consumers will come to prefer this type of advertising because it feels more like a conversation than an interruption."
7. Doug Garland (Former VP, Digital Media at NBCUniversal)
   "Once online ads become more tailored, the feedback from consumers will be overwhelmingly positive."
8. Jack Dorsey (Co-Founder, Twitter)
   "What we’re seeing is that the future of online advertising is about delivering not just ads but content that engages users. When ads feel like they belong on the platform and align with user interests, consumers respond positively."
9. Scott McDonald (President & CEO, The Advertising Research Foundation - ARF) "The evolution of digital advertising means consumers will no longer have to endure irrelevant ads. They will prefer ads that are more personalized and aligned with their needs, and the data we’re collecting confirms this shift."
10. John Montgomery (Executive Vice President, Global Media, GroupM)
    "Consumers want ads that are tailored to their interests, and digital advertising allows for that kind of personalization. As more consumers interact with digital media, the expectation for more relevant, contextual ads will only grow, making online advertising the preferred medium."

Now, let's return to planet Earth and see what the actual living inhabitants have to say. Recently The Harris Poll did a study commissioned by ad filtering company eyeo involving 2,000 consumers to see what they had to say about online advertising. 

Our industry 'leaders' might be surprised to learn that not only was consumer feedback on online advertising not 'overwhelmingly positive', it was exquisitely negative. According to Harris, online ads led as the most frustrating problem with the entire internet experience. 

Across all segments the leading answer to the question about frustration with the internet was identical: Advertising.  And not only is it the biggest online frustration, every segment considers online advertising more of a problem than security, and more of a problem than privacy. 

As for the horseshit about consumers wanting ads that 'understand' them and are 'personalized' to their interest, four out of five of people surveyed said that the collection of data for the purpose of ad targeting was a negative, not a positive.

So, to recap the bullshit...

     ...Consumers 'will prefer this type of advertising' because 'they will no longer have to
     endure irrelevant ads.' 'The feedback from consumers will be overwhelmingly positive' 
     because 'it's more personalized and helpful' and the ads will be 'engaging individuals
     in meaningful ways' that are 'tailored to their needs and preferences.'

Yeah, right, on what planet?         
                                                                    h/t Richard Meyer for alerting me to this research.                 

People who are good at golf tend to believe golf is the greatest game. People who are good at painting tend to believe art is our highest calling. People who are religious believe in the brilliance of the bible. This is called confirmation bias. We tend to embrace those things that validate our beliefs or inclinations.

Advertising has two primary branches of discipline -- the strategic and the creative. Most of us who work in advertising, perhaps 90% or more, are primarily involved in the strategic part. Although most of us don't have the word ‘strategy’ in our title, strategy is what we do. We decide how to spend media dollars; how to develop a promotion; we plan presentations; we decide how to structure a meeting, etc. In other words, we make strategic decisions.

Our involvement with creative work is generally second-hand. We may manage, evaluate, kill, approve, or otherwise interact with it. But most of us are not involved in the hands-on making of it. The consequence of this is that although it should be self-evident that the most important aspect of advertising is the advertising itself, our behavior says that we don't really believe this. We give great lip-service to creativity, but actually place a higher value on what we do — strategic tasks.

Clients and agencies will allow themselves months to develop strategies, and days to create ad campaigns. We have endless hours of meetings, presentations, off-sites, deep-dives, decks, and downloads to discuss strategy. And at the end of all this, every now and then an ad appears somewhere. Why? Because placing a higher value on strategy validates what we do. It is a lovely example of confirmation bias.

This would be worth it if we could demonstrate that all this ‘strategic’ activity paid out. But the contribution of most people we blithely call ‘strategists’ to the effectiveness of advertising is suspect at best.

Sadly, creative people cannot rely on anything very useful coming out of the briefs they get. When advertising breakthroughs occur, they are usually the result of an imaginative idea from a creative person. Then the idea is reverse engineered to appear to have sprung fully-formed from the strategy.

Confirmation bias leads the marketing community to foolishly value the word of the most mediocre strategist above the instincts of the most talented creative person. All this is just a long way of saying that, in most cases, great advertising is the best strategy.

There's no real connection between the two charts I'm going to reproduce below other than I found them both in a piece by Andrew Tindall in The Drum this week and they both support two of my strongest-held beliefs about advertising.

A million years ago when I was chief exec of a few ad agencies I'd sometimes get this question from clients. "How do I know the advertising you're doing is working?" I always answered the same way, "Oh, that's easy. Let's stop advertising and see what happens."

The next chart also reinforces one of my most cherished beliefs about advertising. 

And don't ever think a dumbass blogweasel can't be guilty of confirmation bias.

      - While in office the first time, Trump says TikTok is dangerous and issues an executive order to make its Chinese parent company (ByteDance) sell it off
     - Later he decides to take Trump Media public
     - Along the way he meets with billionaire supporter Jeff Yass, co-founder of Susquehanna International Group. Yass is a major investor in ByteDance - to the tune of $21 billion.
     - Susquehanna becomes the largest institutional investor in Trump Media.
     - Trump media goes public and Susquehanna's investment in Trump Media immediately helps deliver to Trump a windfall of $4.5 billion.
     - And suddenly Trump thinks TikTok is aces.

This is crony capitalism at its finest. Do not be surprised when a deal is done if members of Trump's family or inner circle become investors in TikTok.

It was 1968 and I was 15 years old.  Like most 15 year olds I had intense passions, but the things that I was passionate about were not things that your typical teenager contemplated.

Yes they included boys, rock and roll generally and the Rolling Stones and boys who looked like the Stones - Brian and Mick - specifically.

But certain earlier influences put me on a trajectory that would guide my thoughts and preoccupations for years, and, I believe, define who I would become later in life.

I didn’t come from a “political” family.  But like many lower middle income families in the 60’s, my parents leaned liberal and tolerant.  Strangely enough however, it was my friend Lynne’s older sister Karen who would have the greatest influence on my emerging social conscience.

I was around nine years old and Karen was a teenager when I first became aware of her.  Karen was not like anyone I knew.  She made no attempt to fit into the world that consumed teenage girls growing up in Far Rockaway, NY in the early 60’s.  And although she lived at home with her parents and two sisters, she seemed to exist in another realm.  She was smart and beautiful and what some might describe as a beatnik.  And I wanted to be just like her.

Karen felt strongly about injustice and was involved in the civil rights movement.  And she listened to Bob Dylan at a time when he was barely known outside of the emerging folk scene in Greenwich Village.  It was Karen who first introduced me to Dylan’s music, and it was their influence that helped form my interests and beliefs.

So by my early teens I embraced the growing antiwar and civil rights movements and began guitar and banjo lessons with folk musician Erik Darling.

In 1968 Carnegie Hall held “A Musical Tribute to Woody Guthrie,” two concerts in celebration of  Woody who had recently died of what was then referred to as Huntington’s Chorea.

The concerts were fundraisers for the Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease founded by Woody’s wife, Marjorie, and were to feature folk music royalty including Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Judy Collins.  But much of the excitement surrounding the event centered around Bob Dylan who, it was rumored, would be making his first public appearance since a purported motorcycle accident a couple of years earlier took him out of circulation.

There was no choice but for me to send a check (written out by my mother) to the box office for three tickets and hope for the best.  Not surprisingly the concerts sold out immediately and the money was sent back with regrets.

My friends and I were devastated as only teenagers can be when denied the opportunity to see their music idols.  But given the concert was a benefit, we decided to return our check to the box office with a note, written by me, saying that while we understood the concerts were sold out, to please forward the money on to the Committee as a donation.

Days passed and my friends and I were hanging out one afternoon feeling let down and depressed, as if we were missing out on one of the most important events to take place in our young lives. Little did we know this was about to change.

Upon returning home later that day my father said, almost as an afterthought,  “By the way, a lady named Marjorie Guthrie called.  She told me to tell you there would be three tickets waiting for you at the box office.”

The tickets turned out to be first tier box seats, some of the best seats in the house .  And while I will always remember the excitement and joy of just being there, after all of these years I can’t get one image out of my mind.

It’s of Marjorie Guthrie who, upon receiving our note and small check, looks up my family’s phone number in the Queens telephone directory (or has Arlo do it) to extend this personal and completely unexpected expression of her appreciation.

Needless to say it haunts me to this day that I missed that phone call.  Still it remains one of the greatest surprises I’ve ever had.

And it was through this gesture that Marjorie Guthrie seemed to embody the values of what to me was a special and intimate community.

Values that motivated three impressionable teenage girls to see beyond their disappointment, understanding that there was something more important at stake.  And it is these values that guide my life to this day.

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