Regrets of an advertising person

[TruthHurts]

Yeah, but thats a universal human emotion. I am sure even Sergei Brin is frustrated.

[DesignBoyz]

We are all frustrated.

But we do not regret advertising. Which profession would give us the choice to work across various media and get paid for it? Make radio, tv, print, poster, new media, street theatre etc...

[Canis major]

We are all frustrated.

But we do not regret advertising. Which profession would give us the choice to work across various media and get paid for it? Make radio, tv, print, poster, new media, street theatre etc...

Well I'll let the messiah speak

http://youtu.be/J14O05N4g2A

[youtube]http://youtu.be/J14O05N4g2A[/youtube]

[Canis major]

That's Bill Hicks but I'm sure you all know.

[Canis major]

The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.

Bill Hicks. RIP.

[JCSaiKrishna]

okay . Well, I was not saying communication is a sin, all I was pointing is the communication is fooling people. Communications need integrity. I believe that brands are the one who play vital role in screwing up this world.

eg 1: A brand called Heritage, I am sure if it is pan India, this brand has milk and milk products. People trust this brand so much and very major portion of the market segment has been consumed by this brand. The reality of this brand is it is banned in Tamilnadu because of its chemical composition used in making milk and other milk products, this helps them in keeping product fresh for a longer time.

I tried to investigate on this, not as an adman, but as a consumer and after referring multiple online resources and a discussion with a hospital person I came to know that it is very dangerous to people, esp. to children, but still buy this brand only because it is perceived so.

eg: 2 this should be one the easiest examples: the amount of plastic produced by Coke and Pepsi... It is screwing up environment and their brand says 'Open happiness'. They have invested billion dollars in US to recylce the bottles, India, they should have fed some bureaucrats and politicians. The very basic essence of food is to nurture our body, and in deed coke and pepsi, others are not good for ones health... Where the heck is goodness. probably happiness without goodness is nothing but betrayal.

I am not blaming here advertising or branding agencies, but inadvertently they have a role in fooling people through communication.


When it comes to us, we are also fooling people. And to compensate at an iota extent we have offered free service to Lok Satta (a political party in Hyderabad) and also contributed to AAP. I don't think it is social service, but social responsibility. And if you have any better idea, please spread it, I am always up for my country, after all I am very much a part of it.

@JsaiKrishna: As I had mentioned [url=The business of advertising is to build brands. The business of marketingz & sales is to sell them.

A brand is a certificate of quality (and other emotional things). Imagine there were no brands. You go to an un-named shop and buy an unbranded tube of standard white toothpaste. You use it at home and your teeth fall off. How do you tell people which shop and which toothpaste to avoid?

The moment you identify the shop and toothpaste, you are creating brands. recognizable brands. advertising starts.]elsewhere[/url]:

The business of advertising is to build brands. The business of marketingz & sales is to sell them.

A brand is a certificate of quality (and other emotional things). Imagine there were no brands. You go to an un-named shop and buy an unbranded tube of standard white toothpaste. You use it at home and your teeth fall off. How do you tell people which shop and which toothpaste to avoid?

The moment you identify the shop and toothpaste, you are creating brands. recognizable brands. advertising starts.

Advertising helps. It helps the society by making products answerable. How would you know which Vaccine is better and which Aspirin doesn't have side effects, if there weren't any brands?

But yes. Sometimes, and often, we must take time out to do more direct service to humanity.

Are you willing?

[Anurag]

This is very complicated.

1) It's wrong for a brand to add chemicals to products that are harmful to humans and to the environment. The government has legislation in place to tackle it, and I think someone should follow this through.

2) Generation of plastic waste: Everyone is spoiling the environment, not just the brands that you mentioned. What about Kumbh Mela? What about throwing dead bodies in the Ganga? What about the vegetable vendor who packs every individual veggie in a separate plastic packet? What about us who drive short distances to work, keep ACs on, consume so much water, eat poultry grown and slaughtered in horrible conditions? What about the Stock Exchange which forces companies to keep showing higher and higher profitability, higher even if the company is doing well? Forcing managers to lay off people to show higher returns per share?

There is a lot of evil in this world. Its wrong to blame only brands.

[JCSaiKrishna]

May be or may not be, I dont have any statistics that quantifies the damage being done by brands and non brands, but at least non brands are not lying through communication in which advertising and branding are involved, that way I am more concerned about the damage being done by brands.

Well, I have a question to myself 'We sense a problem here, so is there anything we can do as an organization?', Answer not yet found.

This is very complicated.

1) It's wrong for a brand to add chemicals to products that are harmful to humans and to the environment. The government has legislation in place to tackle it, and I think someone should follow this through.

2) Generation of plastic waste: Everyone is spoiling the environment, not just the brands that you mentioned. What about Kumbh Mela? What about throwing dead bodies in the Ganga? What about the vegetable vendor who packs every individual veggie in a separate plastic packet? What about us who drive short distances to work, keep ACs on, consume so much water, eat poultry grown and slaughtered in horrible conditions? What about the Stock Exchange which forces companies to keep showing higher and higher profitability, higher even if the company is doing well? Forcing managers to lay off people to show higher returns per share?

There is a lot of evil in this world. Its wrong to blame only brands.

[JCSaiKrishna]

I believe this relates to a subset we are discussing in this thread. check out this:

http://windowsquare.com/blog/advertisin ... p-stories/

[Canis major]

May be or may not be, I dont have any statistics that quantifies the damage being done by brands and non brands, but at least non brands are not lying through communication in which advertising and branding are involved, that way I am more concerned about the damage being done by brands.

Well, I have a question to myself 'We sense a problem here, so is there anything we can do as an organization?', Answer not yet found.

This is very complicated.

1) It's wrong for a brand to add chemicals to products that are harmful to humans and to the environment. The government has legislation in place to tackle it, and I think someone should follow this through.

2) Generation of plastic waste: Everyone is spoiling the environment, not just the brands that you mentioned. What about Kumbh Mela? What about throwing dead bodies in the Ganga? What about the vegetable vendor who packs every individual veggie in a separate plastic packet? What about us who drive short distances to work, keep ACs on, consume so much water, eat poultry grown and slaughtered in horrible conditions? What about the Stock Exchange which forces companies to keep showing higher and higher profitability, higher even if the company is doing well? Forcing managers to lay off people to show higher returns per share?

There is a lot of evil in this world. Its wrong to blame only brands.

It's nice that you're asking that question. Most of us are so busy in our craft that we often overlook the fact of what the end result is because partly we're not involved and don't get to see what the marketing people are trying to con people with.

okay . Well, I was not saying communication is a sin, all I was pointing is the communication is fooling people. Communications need integrity. I believe that brands are the one who play vital role in screwing up this world.

eg 1: A brand called Heritage, I am sure if it is pan India, this brand has milk and milk products. People trust this brand so much and very major portion of the market segment has been consumed by this brand. The reality of this brand is it is banned in Tamilnadu because of its chemical composition used in making milk and other milk products, this helps them in keeping product fresh for a longer time.

I tried to investigate on this, not as an adman, but as a consumer and after referring multiple online resources and a discussion with a hospital person I came to know that it is very dangerous to people, esp. to children, but still buy this brand only because it is perceived so.

eg: 2 this should be one the easiest examples: the amount of plastic produced by Coke and Pepsi... It is screwing up environment and their brand says 'Open happiness'. They have invested billion dollars in US to recylce the bottles, India, they should have fed some bureaucrats and politicians. The very basic essence of food is to nurture our body, and in deed coke and pepsi, others are not good for ones health... Where the heck is goodness. probably happiness without goodness is nothing but betrayal.

I am not blaming here advertising or branding agencies, but inadvertently they have a role in fooling people through communication.


When it comes to us, we are also fooling people. And to compensate at an iota extent we have offered free service to Lok Satta (a political party in Hyderabad) and also contributed to AAP. I don't think it is social service, but social responsibility. And if you have any better idea, please spread it, I am always up for my country, after all I am very much a part of it.

A good example and very apt. I like your attitude JC and very nicely written.

This is very complicated.

1) It's wrong for a brand to add chemicals to products that are harmful to humans and to the environment. The government has legislation in place to tackle it, and I think someone should follow this through.

2) Generation of plastic waste: Everyone is spoiling the environment, not just the brands that you mentioned. What about Kumbh Mela? What about throwing dead bodies in the Ganga? What about the vegetable vendor who packs every individual veggie in a separate plastic packet? What about us who drive short distances to work, keep ACs on, consume so much water, eat poultry grown and slaughtered in horrible conditions? What about the Stock Exchange which forces companies to keep showing higher and higher profitability, higher even if the company is doing well? Forcing managers to lay off people to show higher returns per share?

There is a lot of evil in this world. Its wrong to blame only brands.

Well the Sudanese Militia or Pol Pot etc are also bad people and doing and done terrible things. But we can be concerned about brands because we work on them. Maybe next time anyone thinks of a campaign, they can may be convince the client to act more responsibly. It's like a chalta hai attitude, the lack of responsibility that we think we're not meant to take.

[JCSaiKrishna]

Thanks for the compliment, Canis.

" Maybe next time anyone thinks of a campaign, they can may be convince the client to act more responsibly. It's like a chalta hai attitude, the lack of responsibility that we think we're not meant to take."

I think this is something on the line of action. But I am not yet clear what kind of responsibility act can we suggest our clients? In the picture of reality I presume that no one of us dare to interfere in the business/functionality layers of our clients. Isn't it? For eg. if we get Coke account or as I said 'heritage' account, do we question them what coke is doing for plastic recycling or why Heritage is using chemicals?

[Priyanka]

@CanisMajor: Maybe next time anyone thinks of a campaign, they can may be convince the client to act more responsibly.

Why do we think the clients are the only ones to blame? Look at the advertising agencies. We talk as if we are all God's Angels.

Look at our advertising. See the number of foreign models in our ads. We are living unto and propagating a certain kind of 'physical looks' as desirable. How horrible is that?

Raymond, which has been championing the 'fashionable' 'perfect man', has a foreign model as well now. Does that mean Raymond, and its agency rethink the perfect man is a white man?

Check out Killer Jeans, Metro Shoes, Woodlands... so many brands. Indian Brands. Indian agencies. And don't tell me agencies dont have influence over clients.

Also, come awards season, the amount of garbage scam ads for the 'social service sector', made without a soul, only to further one's career.

I have met various kind of people in my life. The shallowest ones seem to always come from advertising.

[Canis major]

@CanisMajor: Maybe next time anyone thinks of a campaign, they can may be convince the client to act more responsibly.

Why do we think the clients are the only ones to blame? Look at the advertising agencies. We talk as if we are all God's Angels.

Look at our advertising. See the number of foreign models in our ads. We are living unto and propagating a certain kind of 'physical looks' as desirable. How horrible is that?

Raymond, which has been championing the 'fashionable' 'perfect man', has a foreign model as well now. Does that mean Raymond, and its agency rethink the perfect man is a white man?

Check out Killer Jeans, Metro Shoes, Woodlands... so many brands. Indian Brands. Indian agencies. And don't tell me agencies dont have influence over clients.

Also, come awards season, the amount of garbage scam ads for the 'social service sector', made without a soul, only to further one's career.

I have met various kind of people in my life. The shallowest ones seem to always come from advertising.

I wasn't getting into the nitty gritties of the advertising method. I was just saying that we contribute a lot to consumerism. We create the end product that is the creative.

[JCSaiKrishna]

I think You, I and everyone over here are aware of the shit around us, but we have to start acting constructive and get our hands dirty to clean it up rather than investing our energies on blaming. Can you please talk about the measures we have to take to start cleaning up advertising?

@CanisMajor: Maybe next time anyone thinks of a campaign, they can may be convince the client to act more responsibly.

Why do we think the clients are the only ones to blame? Look at the advertising agencies. We talk as if we are all God's Angels.

Look at our advertising. See the number of foreign models in our ads. We are living unto and propagating a certain kind of 'physical looks' as desirable. How horrible is that?

Raymond, which has been championing the 'fashionable' 'perfect man', has a foreign model as well now. Does that mean Raymond, and its agency rethink the perfect man is a white man?

Check out Killer Jeans, Metro Shoes, Woodlands... so many brands. Indian Brands. Indian agencies. And don't tell me agencies dont have influence over clients.

Also, come awards season, the amount of garbage scam ads for the 'social service sector', made without a soul, only to further one's career.

I have met various kind of people in my life. The shallowest ones seem to always come from advertising.

[DesignBoyz]

Start by eliminating scam ad culture.
My friend works for a top 5 agency and was told if she doesn't win an award, her entire team will not be promoted. That forces her to think harder on scam and ignore real work.