How To Be Happy In Advertising

The Ad Contrarian is on sabbatical. For the sake of blogoholics and other harmless sociopaths we will be posting stuff from years back that is either still relevant or still silly. Here's one from 2007.

Dr. Adcontrarian is on duty today to help you be a happier ad person. Please have a seat.

It's not easy being happy in advertising. It's a frustrating business. Modern life is filled with many horrors -- war, husbands, pizza topped with smoked chicken. And we ad people are closely aligned with something uniquely unsettling -- popular culture.

Advertising used to be about discovering what consumers wanted and creating messages that addressed those interests. Now it's about pretending to find out what consumers want but really trying to figure out what the next hot cultural thing is going to be and jumping on it under the pretext of understanding consumer interests. Call me cynical.

Paying such close attention to pop culture causes great anxiety. It is non-stop slime bucket stimulation . We secretly enjoy pop culture because it keeps us edgy and anxious. This works its way through our back-door neuroreceptors to stimulate us consciously yet make us miserable unconsciously (full disclosure - I have no idea WTF I'm talking about but, admit it, if your shrink said this you'd nod your head.)

Anyway, I was on vacation not long ago. I was out-of-the-loop for a while -- off-the-grid, so to speak. I came back 50% happier than I left. After thinking about it, I realized that I was so much less tense and anxious because I hadn't watched a tv show, or read a newspaper, or visited a website, or watched a news broadcast for weeks.

You may be thinking that ignoring current events and paying no attention to the news is not conducive to good citizenship. This may very well be true but it is not the subject of today's session, so shut up.

You wanna be happy? Unplug.

A good place to start is to stop reading blogs.

How Many Cognitive Anthropologists Does It Take To Make A TV Spot?

I know, I know... I'm supposed to be on blog sabbatical. But I came across this and it's just too good to pass up.

CP+B just broke 2 new TV spots for Applebee's. This post is not about the spots. It's about the credits for the spots. Apparently it took more people to create this thing than Gone With The Wind. Below are the credits for the two spots. (If you think I'm making this up, here's the proof.)

• Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
• VPs, Executive Creative Directors: Steve Babcock, Mark Taylor
• VP, Creative Director: Allen Richardson
• Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Scott MacGregor
• Associate Creative Directors: Rich Ford, Brandt Lewis
• Senior Art Director: David Gonsalves
• Integrated Head of Video: Chad Hopenwasser
• Senior Integrated Producer: Aaron Kovan
• Integrated Producer: Annie Turlay
• Food Shoot Production Company: MJZ
• Food Shoot Director: Irv Blitz
• Executive Producer: Franny Freiberger
• Production Supervisor: Sabrina Mossberg
• Live-Action Production Company: Moxie Pictures
• Live-Action Director: Jared Hess
• Executive Producers: Robert Fernandez, Lizzie Schwartz
• Head of Production, Producer: Roger Zorovich
• Line Producer: Laura Heflin
• Director of Photography: Dariusz Wolskio
• Postproduction: Plus Productions
• VP, Executive Producer: Idalia Deshon
• Integrated Producer: Andrea Krichevsky
• Editor: Logan Hefflefinger
• Assistant Editors: Chancler Haynes, Chadwick Schultz
• VFX Artist: Adam Nix
• Finishing Company: Method Studios
• Executive Producer: Robert Owens
• Music Company: JSM
• Executive Integrated Music Producer: Bill Meadows
• Composers, Arrangers: Joel Simon, Jordan Lieb
• Sound Design, Mix Company: Lime Studios
• Sound Designer: Sam Casas
• Assistant Sound Designer: Matthew Miller
• Animation Company: Buck
• Visual Effects Company: Method Studios
• Visual Effects Editor: Claus Hansen
• Assistant Visual Effects Editor: Krysten Richardson
• Visual Effects Producer: Colin Clarry
• EVP, Group Account Director: Danielle Whalen
• VP, Account Director: Scott Sibley
• Content Management Supervisor: Ted Morse
• Content Supervisor: Greg Paige
• Content Manager: Derek Effinger
• Assistant Content Manager: Alex Kirk
• Business Affairs: Lisa Gillies
• Talent Consultant: Michelle Thompson
• Cognitive Anthropologists: Andrew Teagle, Kaylin Goldstein, Amelia Hall
• Traffic Manager: Megan O'Rourke

The gig had seven Creative Directors and four Content Managers. Hard to see how they scraped by with only three Cognitive Anthropologists.

The 5th Anniversary Edition

Today marks the 5th anniversary of The Ad Contrarian.

Against all odds, the blog is still alive, readership is still growing, and it hasn't cost me any accounts. All this is very gratifying.

I am rewarding myself with a sabbatical. I'm going to take the month of July off and I'll be back in August.

For all the blogoholics out there, I'll be posting stuff from years past that I think is either still relevant or entertaining.

Have a good July and I'll see you sometime in August.