matthewkappenman.net/blog

One of the extraordinary things about weblogs is the ability for everyone to have an opinion in regards to a certain topic, as well as the ability to editorialize the current topics in the media and society. Gapingvoid.com, written by Hugh MacLeod who is himself a marketer, is a great weblog with witty commentary and web-comics discussing the blogosphere and marketing in general.

However, I think that this particular piece of commentary about advertising and innovation is a more than a little inaccurate and is nothing more than a pot shot at the industry. The following is a quote from his post:

“I’m fond of saying, when people in the advertising business ask me where my disaffection with that industry comes from, I tell them to do the math:

The Cuetrain [sic] wasn’t written by a Leo Burnett employee.
Movable Type wasn’t invented by McCann’s.
RSS wasn’t invented by JWT.
Robert Scoble doesn’t work for Fallon.
Techmeme wasn’t invented by Saatchi’s.

Advertising people are supposed to be in “the idea business”. But none of the ideas that have excited me in the last 5 years or so have come from Madison Avenue. Not one. Zero. Zilch. Nada.” -Hugh Macleod

I agree that there is a lot of hubris in the ad industry as a whole, and the term “creative” as a job title is more than a little off kilter. However, this sort of egoism is required when on a daily basis 1 out of your 1000 ideas is able to take hold and really accomplish something for your client and agency. Advertising people are still in the “idea business,” just not the ideas that MacLeod is interested in.

In response to MacLeod’s list of grievances with the industry I offer up my own list.

Let me preface this with the fact that I’m not a current marketing/advertising practitioner, but I have a degree in it and a large number of my friends are down in the trenches of the industry. I instead make educational software, it is much less stressful. :) Let me start by saying that I can’t argue with his first point in regards to The Cluetrain Manifesto as it is a great book and continues to be the gold standard, even 6 years after it was published. However, let me move on the points with which I disagree on.

Movable Type wasn’t invented by McCann’s. RSS wasn’t invented by JWT.

In regards to his second and third point, that Movable Type and RSS weren’t invented by the ad industry all I can respond with is that television, radio and magazines weren’t created by advertising professionals either but rather, where mediums with which to tell their clients stories….they were developed and invented by technologists, exactly how Movable Type and RSS came about.

Robert Scoble doesn’t work for Fallon.

As much as I love Scoble he only has credibility in the technology sector so why should he work for Fallon as they aren’t attempting to influence anyone in the tech industry? How would Scoble be able to help Fallon with one of their clients like Brawny? Not sure.

Techmeme wasn’t invented by Saatchi’s.

Next up on the list is techmeme giving publicity to writers/bloggers, which is what Saatchi’s does in the “real” world. This really isn’t a valid argument as Saatchi’s isn’t trying to influence the insular blogosphere which is what techmeme is currently syndicating. If somehow the PR world got turned upside-down with agents and casting directors subscribing to RSS feeds then there would be a legitimate grip…but for right now the argument is null and void. Why would an actor in New York want a write up in some technology based blog in Montana which could then be re-syndicated by techmeme? I don’t know…do you?

I would also like to discuss the quote that sparked this post by MacLeod in which Doc Searls states:

Whatever marketing becomes will start, I believe, as a technology trend.

I completely agree but what Doc said is nothing new as TV, Radio, the Telephone and the Printing Press where definitely not invented by marketers, but rather by technologists. As much as I love a lot of people in the Ad industry they are not gods, just people trying to solve problems for their individual clients and using various mediums to do so.

I agree that there are parts of the ad industry that are stagnant and a lot of people who are still clinging to the old ways of doing things, however there are plenty of people (link, link, link, link, link and link–my old roommate works for that last one) really thinking and I can only hope that some of the reasons MacLeod is fed up with the advertising can be remedied as the next wave of marketing online comes about.

One cannot look towards Advertising to come up with the next big-technological-thing, however you can look for them to create one killer way of apply that technology to delivering messages and telling stories for their clients.

p.s. Sorry for such a long post but while I don’t drink all the kool-aid the agencies put out there, I do feel the need to defend some of my friends from KU as they are hard working ad/pr people, fighting to promote their brands.