The advertising trade press is beyond redemption.
It seems to be populated by people who have never created an ad, never sold an ad, never stood before a client and had to justify what they've done with their money, and never demonstrated an ounce of skepticism about the bullshit they're fed every day by self-promoting hustlers.
The latest example is this slice of baloney from Business Insider, entitled
"Brands Are Wasting Their Money Hiring High-Priced Celebrities To Appear In Ads."And what is the justification for this immoderate pronouncement? Some nonsense about sharing of videos on line.
Apparently the author of this article thinks that the purpose of advertising is to have it shared on line.
This is in perfect harmony with the narrative that the trade press has created that the only measure of advertising value is in its online impact.
These people live in a bubble-world of urban hipsters and web-addled media types who have no clue that everyone else in the world just watches tv spots and doesn't really give a flying shit about sharing them on line.
They have no idea that in the pantheon of things pathetic losers do, "sharing" tv spots is in the 98th percentile.
In the gated world of intellectual emptiness our trade press inhabits, online chitchat is the measure of all things
These goobers have no compunction about taking a subject about which they know fuck-all and making grand unconditional proclamations.
"Brands are wasting their money hiring high-priced celebrities to appear in ads?" Really?
Tell that to Nike, amigo.
Okay, before I start getting email death threats from my friends in the press, there are obviously some very good and intelligent ad industry reporters. Some. Unfortunately there are a whole lot more clueless bozos. By the way, last time I criticized these people they did a nasty little hit piece on me. My readership doubled.
11 comments:
Crafty. And it seems that your previous encounter, as mentioned at the end of your post, indicates that while the trade press may indeed be full of shit, it's read by people who recognize it as such.
The ad industry as a whole is now very much like the government. The people in charge are irredeemably idiotic, while those they serve are inconsolably disappointed in them. Well, fuck, at least we didn't elect the trade press.
By the way, last time I criticized these people they did a nasty little hit piece on me. My readership doubled.
Link? (Ought to be a good read :-))
I agree, but doesn't Nike's current celebrity strategy revolve around online video that's too long for TV spots? I loooved their World Cup videos and Write the Future was 3 minutes long.
I know that's not really the point of the piece, but you seem to be signing off by mentioning THE kings of celebrity videos shared online.
BTW, shared videos with celebrities, Conor, making his point worth double.
You mean you don't want to know the Five Ways Your Brand Can Maximize its blah-di-blah by unleashing some bullshit? The online environment hasn't been kind to the ad press. It's turned into a breathless crowd-sourced vortex of dubious opinions.
Oh, I see. I had thought he meant sharing of online ads was useless, because of the bit about his claim that few people share spots. I had kinda forgotten that the whole Business Insider angle was "it's wasted money."
I think what threw me off was saying only pathetic losers share videos then nodding to a brand who launched a Youtube spot two weeks ago that has 62 million views.
That's not a criticism of the point of the piece at all - the delusion of online video sharing is quite real and Nike is the exception. Just seemed incongruous
For me the greatest dereliction on the part of the press is not how they cover the industry--it's how they don't cover it. There are never stories that demand long-term investigative reporting. Nothing about the decline in salaries, ageism, the rapine of the holding companies. Real business issues are ignored or glossed over. They attempt to distract us via tripe. Blogs like yours, Bob, fill in for the lacunae of alleged journalists.
One of your best lines ever: "These goobers have no compunction about taking a subject about which they know fuck-all and making grand unconditional proclamations."
I think we need a Deadline Hollywood equivalent for the trade press.
They're practicing the holding company model of journalism.
Vale David Abbott.
On the subject of the trade press, he was once featured in a 'scoop' story in Campaign, the UK journal. Asked for comment, he said: "As usual they only got two things right on the front page - the date and the price."
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