It starts as one great idea. Let's take Got Milk? Then let's add Got Beer, Got Yogurt, Got Condoms, Got Fleas, Got Music, Got Fish, Got Jesus and 10,000 other rip-offs of a simple slogan created by countless marketing "professionals" who's last good idea was a decision they made in the finance department where they should have stayed. There's a whole website devoted to all the copycats of the "Got" campaign. Which leads me to ask the question, what happened to original, fresh, creative advertising?
Apparently, it turned into boobs, which is ironic considering who's coming up with this stuff. Flip through any Las Vegas magazine. We need to sell sushi. I know, let's put a boob on it. We need to sell condos. I know, let's put a boob on it. Nightclubs? Boobs. Restaurants? Boobs. Clothes? Boobs. Beer? Boobs. Boobs. Boobs. Boobs. Boobs are the new toolbox for creative professionals. Adobe Photoboob. Microsoft Wordboob. Macromedia Boobmaker. Crayola Boobmarkers.
When did advertising professionals decide that the solution to all creative problems were boobs? Or rip-offs? Or copy cats? The downfall of great advertising began with the operations guy that decided every silly idea that pops into his head is great. Or perhaps it can be blamed on his secretary which he promoted to marketing director because he liked the way she color-coded his file folders which means she must be creative. Never mind the purple dress, green pumps, white belt with gold "I'm a Gemini" buckle, blue eyeshadow, pink glossy lipstick and silver glittery eyelashes she's wearing while she's giving a a college educated art director crucial creative input like "don't put too much ink on the page, too much ink destroys the environment and that kills the whales and stuff." (True story, yes, it really happened.)
You know the guy I'm talking about. He usually starts his sentences out with "this is not my area of expertise...but." He's the one with all the yes men around him to support every dumb thought that rattles around in his head and drops out of his mouth. The problem is he never went to school for advertising. He never studied art or design. He thinks his girlfriend is the perfect model for all of his advertising, and he doesn't mean after she gets her braces off, loses 30 pounds, grows a foot, shaves the moustache and the burns heal from that curling iron mishap.
So where do we go from here? Well I say that out of respect, Got Milk should simply stay Got Milk and What Happens in Vegas Will Stay In Vegas. Advertising professionals should JUST DO IT because it's the right thing to do. And we should leave creative development in the hands of those that are trained to do it. After all, would you rather have a high-strung ad guy on his sixth cup of coffee and seventh round of revisions performing laser eye surgery or just marketing it?
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5 comments:
Your opening is just futher proof that women really could rule the world if they wanted to. Never mind the incredible brain power that we posess, our sensability and sensativity, our need to nurture and the countless other things that make women amazing creatures. We can just flash our boobs at the guards outside the President's office, walk in and flash a couple of pairs at the President himself (which, let's face it, would mesmerize and dumbfound our current leader), sit down behind the desk and start running things. All for boobs and boobs for all.
I couldn't agree with you more!!! i cringe everytime i see a GOT anything and i can just imagine what the poor guy (or girl) at Goodby who came up with that must feel. i always wonder, are the people who bootleg ideas just being lazy or do they actually think they're being clever?? for the sake of all creativity, i hope it's the former...
Dear Gettinby,
The world is full of material distractions & may people who are lucky enough to have a roof over their head and food on the table succumb to living an extremely externally motivated existence, which I refer to as “Affluenza”…when they complain constantly about how hard their life is/ when they’ve mortgaged themselves up to their eyebrows & they “need” 2 new Lexus’ in the driveway every couple years, filling the emptiness of their inner lives with self-made conflict, and the endless cycle of ‘getting & having’.
An open mind, an open heart, the ability to forgive(which is sometimes a miracle in and of itself), true friendships, and laughter (which makes the tough times bearable, and makes the good times even better)…these are the authentic treasures in life. And they are available for free, if we are open to them.
All the other stuff is parsley, which might look good on the plate, but does anyone ever eat that?
More to come…
The comments from C are perhaps some of the most important I have read. While they don't specifically relate to this post, they relate to the very purpose of my blog. I look forward to the rest of the post.
The power that advertising has to manipulate the minds of consumers is an amazing fact. And what an opportunity it must be for those people whose job it is to motivate the world's population to react. Talk about power. Although, for the creative thinker, the bar must be forever raised to imagine newer, more clever ways to accomplish a desired consumer reaction. And with technology advancements almost weekly, this industry must be scrambling to adjust and keep up like so many others. But when it feels like the world is moving so fast that an overnight delivery is not fast enough. And when we become so desensitized by the media that each morning we're lead to believe that the horror in Iraq is business as usual...you just want to ask your neighbor "got peace?" But if that's not creative enough, simply slow down and take a few minutes to think of something better. Internalize it a bit and add some personality. Be real and the people of this world will listen.
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