Advertising and hieroglyphics

Is advertising dead?

Warning bells have been ringing since the mid-1990s, when the nascent Internet began returning marketing and customer service to the 19th century. Built on the platform of mass marketing, 20th century advertising could once command vast hordes of willing consumers to buy products and services of almost any type or genre.

With the fragmentation of media and free -- and respectable -- content available with a low-cost Internet connection, advertising is in trouble. Big trouble.

So-called "compelling creative" is too often little more than than the sound of a rock in a bucket. The top-heavy and costly production services of ad agencies serves up a mixed message of awkward success in an age where "dirty video" -- produced with little more than a digital camera from CompUSA -- attracts millions of viewers. If one thing is for certain in the 21st century, consumers will do just about damn near anything to avoid intrusive advertising.

Advertising and its related disclipines still comprise about 2% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, so the ad machine won't die a willing death, anymore than tax attorneys would be willing to go practice family law in favor of a new and understandable tax re-structuring. But the once invulnerable industry is feeling the pinch.

Even Ogilvy & Mather CEO Shelly Lazarus has recently weighed in with calls to somehow "redefine advertising." Why not, especially when billions of dollars in billable income are at stake. Interestingly, Lazarus admits that more than half of the revenue to O&M comes from "nonadvertising business." The shift, she accurately points out, is due to marketing becoming a CEO issue. No more will ad managers wield the brand sceptre exclusively.

Stores in the 19th century won business because they knew who their customers were and respected them. For the most part, they didn't try to create unrealistic expectations about commodity products. With consumers flocking online -- if not to purchase, then to compare and research -- advertisers consistently produce communication products that will one day take their place with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Interesting, but often hardly relevant.

For more, check out Lazarus's comments at: http://adage.com.

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More to come.