Bullsh*t

It is probably not a coincidence that the loss of confidence in advertising is concurrent with another trend in the advertising business – the unprecedented concentration of the ad industry into the hands of a few lawyers and accountants. A couple of decades ago Y&R had the largest share of the ad market in the US at a little over 1%. Today four global holding companies control about 75% of U.S. ad dollars.

Along with this consolidation of dollars has come a consolidation of thinking. In our opinion, these companies tend to sound alike, look alike, and smell alike. They spout the same clichés and dreadful jargon. Here is an excerpt from a press release from one such global agency. I've changed the names to protect the innocent:

Mr. A will report to Mr. B, executive creative director of OmniGlobe, who said Mr. A “represents a new generation of creative visionaries who are able to bring the total brand experience to the development of integrated creative solutions."

Oh.

How can people who write nonsense like this create comprehensible ads? Right, they can’t.

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