Abbottabadvertising

Just like your local helicopter news team, bloggers are always looking for the local angle.

In assessing last week's news about bin Laden, I think I've found a way to connect it to the ad business.

The Navy Seals, the people who actually did the work, seem to have put in a nearly flawless performance.

On the other hand, all the other parties associated with the raid -- the politicians and their jabbering monkeys -- screwed everything else up royally. They couldn't get their stories straight. Everything they said at the beginning turned out to be wrong. They tripped in their underwear, contradicted each other, and seemed to be making it up as they went along.

Which, of course, reminds me of the ad business.

There are two kinds of ad people. The ones who make the ads, and the ones who stand on the sidelines and tell them how.

The results would usually be a whole lot better if the people who made the ads were just left alone and allowed to do their jobs without the "input" of the executive knuckleheads, the account ringmasters, and the sidewalk sociologists.

Of course, there are some people on the sidelines who do, from time to time, add value. But they are the exception. For the most part, all the jabberers are good for is complicating the living shit out of everything and getting the story wrong.

And just like our feckless politicians, they know how to do everyone's job but their own.

And Speaking Of Knowing Everyone's Job But One's Own...
I'm speaking at Stanford today. Is it ironic that I'm smart enough to be a teacher at a place where I'm not smart enough to be a student? Just askin'.