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Since when did advertising become respectable?

Adam Ferrier

by Adam Ferrier

21 Oct 05:50am

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Filed under: Advertising, Business, Communications, Marketing

32 comments

The other day I was presenting at a conference on sustainability, and wondered what I was doing there.  I clock up more air-miles than a rare bald headed eagle, have an unsustainable lifestyle, and don’t own a rainwater tank.  Don’t get me wrong I was flattered to be asked to talk, and trust I contributed to the conference, but it got me thinking. 

Once a figure of scorn, the ad guy is now sought out. Photo: Daily Telegraph

I can’t go past a discussion on a cultural, environmental, or societal issue these days without seeing an ‘ad-guy’ (and unfortunately it’s very often males) proffering their opinion on what will solve our latest ill.

Like it or not, the advertising industry is being pulled into all manner of communities with the hope they can solve the world’s issues. And like it or not, the world is now taking the ‘ad guy’ seriously. 

So why is this happening? It’s probably due to a number of factors such as the exposure that advertising is getting through shows such as The Gruen Transfer, 30Seconds, and Mad Men.  However, it’s more likely these shows are a by-product, and not the cause of the new found popularity of ‘ad guy’.  It’s the ‘ad-guy’s’ time for a much more significant and more interesting reason. That reason is, information and its close cousin, rational debate has not worked.

We’ve just lived through the beautifully coined, ‘information age’.  We have loads and loads of information, and we are all inter-connected, sharing all this wonderful information.  And yet how much has this over-load of information really contributed to solving any of the world’s significant problems?

Did all of the financial information we had access to help us predict the global financial crisis (cutely branded the ‘GFC’)? No. With all this information can we make someone ride their bike to work and not drive a car? Can we convince a rich nation to give 10% of their wealth to a poor nation? Can we make men stop raping women? No, no and no. Information, and rational debate hasn’t answered any of these issues.

Where does one turn? 

You turn to an industry that has managed to convince people to pay $10.00 for a beer, $1,000 for a new BBQ and $100,000 for a new car.  You turn to an industry that’s made it normal to change your car every few years, your wardrobe every few months, and your toothbrush every few weeks. 

Advertisers are seen as the masters of manipulation, and although they may not quite understand how their craft actually works, they know it gets results.  Other industries are beginning to get curious, they want the ‘ad-guy’ to unbottle their tricks and help solve bigger issues.  The do-gooders are getting into bed with the devil, potentially for the greater good? 

Good because the advertising industry is full of very bright, creative, action orientated people who have learned the power of influence.  They’ve learned how to change behaviour and how to appeal to people’s emotions, and not try and win arguments based on just information and fact.

And bad because I personally don’t want people trained to come up with a non-existent reason to buy one form of tomato sauce over another coming up with the solutions for problems that really matter; homelessness, the environment, income distribution inequality and mental health. Will their solutions really work? Will the ‘ad-guy’s’ involvement take us forwards or back? It takes more than a cool t-shirt to care.

As advertising gets pulled into problem solving for more and more areas of society the ethics of what we do, and how we do it should come under even greater scrutiny.  These problems we increasingly get exposed to are not just another ‘creative opportunity’, they are an opportunity to make the world a better place, and should be treated as such. 

Well done those who are starting out in advertising now, your moon, as they say, is rising.  Your opinions will be devoured in mainstream media and at dinner parties alike.  You may become the doctors of the modern age, curing the world of all ills (‘Eeek, could the messiah be an ad-guy)?  To those not in advertising and want a quick fix to whatever your issue is just remember ‘the brighter the picture the darker the negative’ (that’s a quote from ‘Batman’ that even Don Draper would be proud of).

- Adam Ferrier is a consumer psychologist and founding partner of Naked Communications Australia. Email him at adam@nakedcomms.com.au

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32 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Eric says:

      06:06am | 21/10/10

      What a load of sexist tripe. Why can’t some people write an article about the influence of advertising, without gratuitously trashing men for no good reason?

      As for the main thesis - that information doesn’t affect people’s behaviour - this is nonsense. It makes the false assumption that some information is absolutely true, and therefore should be acted on. In reality, the interpretation of the meaning of information may vary. Just because you believe everyone should act in a particular way, that doesn’t mean everyone else will believe the same thing.

      And when you start off by insulting half the human race simply because of their genitals, you’re not going to be very persuasive with what you say next.

      Reply

    • suzannah says:

      05:59pm | 21/10/10

      Most of the advertising industry has been very respectable and responsible, speaking from personal experience.

      Who is Adam Ferrier to say otherwise? Has he worked with creative teams that give full value to a client with a good product, and get real returns for the client plus putting useful products into the market?

      His views may be coloured by political advertising, which isn’t advertising at all, merely propaganda.

    • Don't watch ads says:

      06:35am | 21/10/10

      If they are so smart how come most advertising is still so bad?

      Reply

    • T.Chong says:

      07:31am | 21/10/10

      Strange article Adam. You know they are scripted ads, the person is an actor, yet you seem to confuse the content of the message with the messenger.
      You also fail to give even one example of any imporant social issue trying to be resolved via advertising .
      AS somone who usually loathes all things marketing, and would normally delight in bagging the industry that promotes appearance over substance, I dont see what the author is claiming.
      Most people would be aware that the ad. company that thought of and promotes Daffodil Day ( as just 1 example) are not the same people trying to seek answers in laboritories.
      Maybe Adam, all your years in advertising research via one way mirrors and focus groups has led you to underestimate the inteligence of the punters.

      Reply

    • Adam DIver says:

      08:54am | 21/10/10

      Climate change (10:10)

    • Jim says:

      08:01am | 21/10/10

      The world may be taking the ‘ad guy’ seriously…fortunately the world does not take pompous academics very seriously.

      Reply

    • ILR says:

      11:15am | 21/10/10

      Here here, Jim! (but you could have added a few more adjectives, like sanctimonious, arrogant, morally vain,.......)

    • David says:

      08:39am | 21/10/10

      I read the article on ethics, particularly about teaching it in schools, then I read this one.
      This article makes the case for the other article.

      Reply

    • John GW says:

      09:17am | 21/10/10

      Shades of Vance Packard! (His The Hidden Persuaders is a good read, btw)  I think most of us are somewhere in the spectrum of politician – advertiser – saleperson – PR person – educator – opinionated person.  Most of us try to some degree to sell ourselves/our points of view, even when claiming not to do so.  And some of the “bad” ads work because they are bad: they stick in our minds, and that is what the advertiser wants to achieve.  Some ads are so subtle I don’t know what they are trying to sell nor who put out the ad.  Question: do the ads for quitting smoking, not drink-driving, not speeding, not beating up your gf, saving water, etc., work?  Or is it more effective to have victims/past perpetrators/extinct animals visit schools, pubs, workplaces?

      Reply

    • ted n says:

      09:40am | 21/10/10

      How bout you guys put some effort into to producing funny engaging ads dude? As you say you have the talent and bling? Why does the industry sit on its lazy bum producing dumb ads? And employ more ribald comics - I’m sick of these factory produced celebrities with plasticine boobs and the rest trying to sell us stuff using plastic sex appeal.

      Reply

    • Samson says:

      10:08am | 21/10/10

      I have a theory that marketing executives are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.  Advertising does seem to produce the result it intends to but there is nothing resembling a scientific method for analysing techniques and results in the marketing industry, so the reasons for an ad’s success are entirely unknown.  Which is perfect for marketers because they can invent whatever explanation they want for why an ad is successful and blame something completely irrelevant when an ad is unsuccessful.

      To me the idea that ad-men have us all in their pockets just doesn’t pass the common sense test.  Does anyone truly believe that simply showing an image of a tough guy with a fancy watch will subliminally convince thousands of men with vastly different backgrounds, lifestyles, aspirations and personalities to buy something they don’t really want in order to fulfil some imaginary alpha-male fantasy?  Humans are just not that simple, even getting to understand the mind of one other human being takes a lifetime, yet marketers want us to believe that they understand all of us better than we know ourselves.

      I suspect that the real power of persuasion that successful ad-men possess is the power to persuade their clients that they have any influence over consumers whatsoever.

      Reply

    • div-ad says:

      12:44pm | 21/10/10

      It’s obvious, in the example given, that it does work. if ‘showing an image of a tough guy with a fancy watch’ did not convince men to buy the watch - the watch company would not continue to run the ad.

      As well, the ‘thousands of men with vastly different backgrounds lifestyles etc…’ have all purchased the same publication. Guess what? a viable percentage of those readers DO buy into the alpha-male fantasy. That’s why they don’t run the ad in New Idea.

      Everyone hates the ‘ad-guy’ - until the reality of their own efforts begins to sink in.

    • Frances says:

      01:49pm | 21/10/10

      Good point div-ad. Perhaps Samson should ask himself how he came to know about, choose and purchase the brand of shirt, pants, shoes he is currently wearing…the computer he’s typing on, breakfast cereal he eats, shampoo he uses and the loo paper he buys to mop the mess that’s spilling from his mouth. Did he just drive down the road (in a car he found on the street without a NavMan) and discover a shop he never knew existed and walked in and selected the first thing he saw? How does he do it…how does he know so much without being communicated to? He is my intellectual idol.

    • Aaron says:

      02:50pm | 21/10/10

      Frances you just described what I do perfectly when buying items (minus getting in the car of course). If I want to buy anything I go to places I already know about from past experience. My exposure to advertising is actually pretty limited and as a result I don’t have as many hang-ups over brands etc.

    • hot tub political machine says:

      03:05pm | 21/10/10

      Actually, it is possible to know about products without advertising. This is something I know about as someone who hasn’t watched TV for about 3 years.

      For example, my three biggest non essential purchasing areas? Entertainment/Eating Out, Clothes, Sports equiptment.

      Buy almost all my entertainment stuff from JB HiFi. Found out about it when a friend walked me into the store. Eating Out? Web guides. Clothes? Websites recommended by friends/just walking into stores when bored during my lunch break. Sports equipment? Store found via the links section on a training blog.

      I would say the vast amount of my money goes on products I have never ever seen advertised - as I simply don’t get exposed to TV ads (or radio for that matter)

    • div-ad says:

      03:36pm | 21/10/10

      well done hot tub - i admire that you avoid the telly etc.

      just wanted to point out though, that every example you use is part of a contemporary advertising mix. The JB example is ‘word of mouth’ advertising. Web guides, sites and links are all leading you to browse and purchase. Many online guides are paid for by the retailer in some way.

      The shops you ‘find’ all have signage and window displays advertising to you as you walk by. Most probably have an ad in the yellow pages or newspaper and a web page.

      so you’ve still been ‘had’ by the ad - just not on the airwaves….

    • Samson says:

      04:27pm | 21/10/10

      @div-ad
      Yes, I’m aware that advertising works, in the sense that a product that is promoted will generally outsell a product that is not promoted.  Why I don’t buy into is the marketer’s explanation that the reason their products sell so well is because they have an innate link to the psyche of the consumer that they can use to influence their spending habits at a whim.  The pop psychology nonsense they use to back up those statements just doesn’t wash with my general experience that humans are very complex creatures, and there are thousands of reasons for someone to purchase a product, like those mentioned above.

      Advertising raises the profile of a brand, introduces its products and can make a company look more professional than they really are, but I don’t think it’s the global puppet-master it’s portrayed as.

      When I see some of the high profile advertising industry figures doing the smarter-than-Adrian-Veidt style posturing on t.v. I get the suspicion that what they are really good at selling is their own abilities.

    • Nigel Catchlove says:

      06:36pm | 21/10/10

      Advertising should never be a ‘stand-alone’ element of marketing a product or service.  An advertising campaign should be part of a communications strategy that can include third-party advocates, product placement, media briefing, academic papers, social media, web-sites (including blogs), sponsorship etc etc.

      The reason people focus on advertising is that is simply the least subtle of any element of a properly structured communications campaign and arguably the least effective. It is difficult at times to determine what influences consumer behaviour but in most cases it is a combination of effects.  Those among us who claim to never watch TV just think they are immune to all these other influences - let them continue their self-deception.  http://www.parsec.com.au

    • Ted thorne says:

      10:30am | 21/10/10

      You should wake up to the real world and you will see that most commercials are mainly females.
      And when males are in a commercial it is always as the butt of some feminist joke.

      Reply

    • david says:

      12:18pm | 21/10/10

      I have noticed this phenomenon as well. Almost without exception, when a man and a woman are in an ad together, the man is presented as confused, bumbling or immature.

      I can only think that there is a perception that women are the decision makers on most TV advertised products. By building the women up in the ad, the advertiser hopes to increase the chance of a sale.

      Having said that men do feature in more serious advertising roles - usually associated with drink driving, speeding, domestic violence etc.

    • hot tub political machine says:

      02:57pm | 21/10/10

      @David.

      Yes advertising is more often directed to women because women do spend more than men. This despite our brief flirtation with metrosexuality (the term metrosexual itself was first coined in marketing as a concept of the heterosexual man who spends as much as gay men and women) -but walk down any shopping mall, notice how many of the stores are directed solely at women?

      They are bigger spenders and advertisers, and the business hiring them know it.

    • Mister X says:

      10:37am | 21/10/10

      I never thought ad-guys are respected. I view them as the type of people not smart to get real jobs in law, medicine, engineering, acocunting etc and not creative enough to really make it as an artist (writer, painter, photographer etc).

      Bill Hicks got it right when he said people in marketing served no useful purpose.

      These days most people are sheeple. Despite the wealth of information out there they still rely on ACA/TT/the Smelegraph to give them their info.

      They ad-guy only exists, as you describe, to try to convince the sheeple to do something good with their consumerism.

      Reply

    • calsa says:

      11:20am | 21/10/10

      Does this include the guy who wears the ‘cool’ t-shirts on the Gruen Transfer who looks like he spends 2 hrs with hair product to make his hair look unkempt and thinks the world would be a better place if we all listened and acted on his opinion on everything?  If so I’m with you on this one.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      11:20am | 21/10/10

      I really like a good advertisement, whether on TV, magazines or billboards.
      If it’s clever, I will think about that product, if I intend buying that sort of thing.
      As long as it is not defamatory or willfully insulting, I cannot think why consumers would really feel intimidated.
      If a manufacturer has gone to the effort and expence of presenting their product or service to the public in an interesting, and hopefully honest way, then we, as consumers, can have our ‘say’.

      Reply

    • hot tub political machine says:

      11:26am | 21/10/10

      Your comment:I dig your articles Mr. Ferrier. Also I would argue that the information age was not worthless, people have a deeper knowledge of many significant issues – so information and rational debate succeeded in getting the raw knowledge. What it failed to do was change anything about the heart of the people who gained the knowledge. You can lead a horse to water……

      The Ad guy will also fail to solve all the worlds problems, not that their work will be fruitless. It will bear some good, and some bad fruit.

      Reply

    • fairsfair says:

      11:28am | 21/10/10

      I agree Adam. Advertisers have some how morphed from “Snake Oil Salesmen” to (my personal favourite label) the “Social Commentator”. I certainly respect them for what they do -becuase even with poor quality (ie shouty ads and jangles)  they generally succeed in their misson to influence the behaviours and spending habits of the public. Unfotunately though, I hate how advertising manipulates me. I am aware of its MO - but I fail to stop it from influencing me on many occasions.

      Advertisers are now doing us a favour in telling us what to buy. An electric car, solar power etc etc to the point where an ad for McDonald’s coffee is almost a community service announcement. It is all portrayed as a means of saving us money, why? so that we can ultimately be bigger consumers - kind of defeats the purpose. The advertising industry has jumped on the sustainability bandwagon bigtime. They are seeming as though they have a vested interest in promiting positive lifestyles - but they are simply just out for the allmight dollar.

      I am sure if you had your time again, you would not have used the term “ad-guy” and and deleted the bracketed section of your second paragraph. Even though being in the Industry this is your own personal observation.  Way to miss the entire point of the article guys (oh sorry I’ll change that to non-descript grouping of commentors prior to me).

      Reply

    • Just Don't Look says:

      05:48pm | 21/10/10

      Being an individual who disconnected my television 5 years ago, mostly because of “Ad-Guy”, I am happy to say I am not influenced by advertising in any of my choices.
      Adam stated “the advertising industry is full of very bright, creative, action orientated people who have learned the power of influence.” I disagree.  I believe these irritants of society are simply fortunate to have so many consumer driven automatons for their audience.

      Reply

    • Steve Smith says:

      08:56pm | 21/10/10

      LOL You aren’t influenced by advertising in any of your choices? How did you find The Punch website?

    • steve says:

      02:44am | 22/10/10

      My Favourite spruikers are the ones on the Morning Shows.They merchandise their products,heavily scripted to a captive host who repeats everything the spruiker says,like they are a 6 yr old or a cockatoo.
      If it isn’t car Insurance its life Insurance or exercise equipment.The same stuff,the same scripted lines,the same host,repeating everything.
      Another one is when a Commercial comes on T.V and the spruiker is not looking directly at us but to the side,like they are talking to someone and we are the 3rd party.In reality their probably not talking to anyone,probably staring at a brick wall.
      Cheap ads,selling crap,trying to get our hard earned money.

      Reply

    • Sludger says:

      08:06am | 22/10/10

      Well, I am in advertising and I make a bloody good living out of it.  I just point out the benefits of what I am selling and how it can do what it is supposed to do to make my clients money.  I am not a social commentator, or a voice of the people.  Nor am I some psycho guru or a snake oil salesman.  I am a bloke who works 12 hours a day to earn my living helping other people earn theirs.  And by the way, I like really well made ads.  You want to attack a profession?  leave us alone.  Go after the bankers or - the most useless of all - state politicians.  We only try to get you to spend money, they steal it.

      Reply

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