The Complicators Have Won

There are two kinds of people -- simplifiers and complicators.

Simplifiers have the ability to distinguish between the essential and the irrelevant. Complicators cannot.

In advertising, simplifiers are indispensible. Complicators are disastrous.

The advertising business is now in the hands of complicators.

From The New York Times, December 2, 2008:

...a new breed of companies is...creating hundreds of versions of clients’ online ads, changing elements like color, type font, message, and image to see what combination draws clicks on a particular site or from a specific audience...

In other words, more complexity; more impenetrable, useless factoids masquerading as data; more paralysis by analysis. More stuff that you think has meaning until you start asking questions and get answers like..."well, that depends...."

If you haven't seen Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg's comments on this subject, check it out here.

Web metrics maniacs have been measuring every visit, every click, every time we blow our nose or wipe our ass. They know what we do and where we live and where we go.

Now they need to tell us what are the principles? What are the simple truths? What do we need to know?

We're waiting.