After over a decade of using Advertising and Media to change and build consumer perspectives across industries and cultures, I believe it's time to help the public read between the lines as well.
Call me cynical (OK, even paranoid), but I saw this video dripping in saccharine sweetness - and the only thing I could think about was a Stasi File!
The erstwhile East Germany's secret police maintained minute, banal, and often absurd, personal details on its citizens. But according to an article in Spiegel Online, Herbert Ziehm - Head of the Department in Germany that now manages the Stasi Files archive: "More often than not, the Stasi did not need to apply pressure at all. In fact, many often felt snubbed if their information was deemed to be of no interest."
Hmmm...
Also, the fact that the files occupy over 100 kilometres of shelf space somehow reminded me of a Server Farm.
Hey, personal information is personal information... whatever manner it is stored!
It's often called the world's second oldest profession.
But while the scope of the oldest one has changed little over time, the evolution in the way we communicate has had profound impact on Advertising.
In the ancient and medieval world, Advertising meant word-of-mouth. In the 1500s with the development of printing it became a 'paid public notice', disseminating the message to many. And it had Copy & Art.
Then came radio, TV, computer, cable TV, Internet, mobile phones, Internet on mobile, and it's still not done... Even what we perceive as 'change' is changing. Continuously.
So what is Advertising today?
Honestly, I don't know.
But I do know from a dozen years evolving with the business, that Advertising is most valued when it can make a tangible difference for the advertiser.
That has not changed. And probably won't.
UPDATE: Nothing's changed. But in a way, everything has. As you see, my focus has shifted - evolved in a way - to a larger canvas. The shift or evolution was gradual, and may be have been discernable to the more observant reader.
While I was delving into the influence of media in society to better understand how perceptions are created, evolved and disseminated, I chanced upon a thread of knowledge that I frankly never knew existed.
My conclusion is that a deep pool of awareness and consciouness exists beyond the shallow narcissistic boundaries created by the convention view of social media and the Internet.
My aim is to send my readers down any path that can lead to this quenching pool.
Lurch. (Not About the Addams Family.)
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For a couple dozen years now, advertising has been lurching.
Maybe (since advertising is just a polyp on the colon of life) all the
world has been lurch...
How Adtech Helped To Radicalize The US
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*This piece appeared in Campaign Magazine UK one week after the riot at the
Capitol in Washington DC*
There is nothing ambiguous about the role the marke...
BART riders get a taste of Utah.
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I don’t usually post work from friends, but I’ll make an exception in this
case. It’s a San Francisco BART/Muni installation from Struck in Salt Lake
City ...
AC #70 is super. And it's here!
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The They Forgot To Make It Super Edition Tug and I (along with a pretty
mouthy community at #acbowl12) dish about this year's ads. Some of it
worked, some ...
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