The ad industry need to embrace its incompetence to get better
In this guest post Eaon Pritchard examines the phenomenon of incompetent people not realising how bad at something they are, and applies it to advertising.
You may be familiar with the case of one McArthur Wheeler. Wheeler was a man who, in 1995, proceeded to rob two banks in Pittsburg, in broad daylight, using no other method to avoid detection other than covering his face with lemon juice.
As lemon juice is usable as invisible ink, Wheeler was certain that it would render his own face invisible, and therefore prevent his face from being recorded by the surveillance cameras.
Wheeler was supremely confident as he had tested his hypothesis by taking a proto-selfie with a polaroid camera and the result had give him an image of only wall, with no face apparent.
Gold, this is the best article I’ve read all year.
very good
reminds me of some retired CCOs
Awesome post.
Eaon, you’re being kind in not mentioning clients in this article.
Especially the freshly minted MBA clients who suddenly find themselves involved in Marketing… or the over-confident grad trainees… etc.
I still don’t quite get the Jon Snow reference, but I never really got into GoT.
Brilliant!
Don’t normally comment on this like this, but I have to agree with Fraser, best article on Mumbrella in yonks
Best article of 2014.
Excellent article.
I painfully see many of my early years in it, too.
I might be too incompetent in my Game of Thrones knowledge to truly understand, but I think the Jon Snow trough refers to Ygritte the Wildling’s regular advice; “You know nothing Jon Snow”. Great article Eaon.
Spot on.
A great read, thanks Eaon.
Agree with all of these posts to date – brilliant article. I’ll bet I’m not the only one trolling through my memory bank of people who fit the Dunning-Kruger model right now.
Infrared LED light fitted to a cap brim – defeats 90% of security cameras and invisible to the naked eye.
More effective than lemon juice.
Love it, don’t go changing mister
Great article Eaon! You’ve obviously read How Brands Grow.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
It’s rare when we all seem to agree.
In this case we can all see ourselves in the stories, I suppose.
About a year ago I was a graphic design intern for an agency in Sydney. I failed to produced a couple of works for their clients, which didn’t fit the agency’s ‘style’. I was made to recognize my area of incompetence and today I consider myself am a better designer for it. I’m always critiquing myself.
Very funny and so true.
I think I’m going to use this on Gen Y’ers
Great article Eaon
Good article. Two other observations: a) no mention anywhere of the advertising industry’s complete disinclination to use data to mitigate the risk of incompetence. Subjective opinion holds far too much sway. b) the idea that brands still need to ‘get that tiny bit of attention’ suggests a complete lack of understanding about how human beings actually make their choices. If you find advertising useful, you clearly don’t have enough friends.
Thank you for managing to articulate this. There does seem to be agreement in all the comments. Great!
Clever article, beautifully written. In my media career I have spent as much time navigating the egos of the blatantly incompetent as I have encouraging the innocently gifted to recognise their raw talents in this industry. I’ve seen some priceless moments of self-awareness, where staff have stopped mid-sentence to process the idea that perhaps they are not seen exactly the way they see themselves. And sometimes they need a hot chocolate and a warm blanket to help them get over the shock and out of that trough!
This is a great observation and simply communicated.
The self awareness evident is so often lacking in the industry.
Nice one Eaon.
Your y axis needs calibration before I can fully evaluate your trough.
The irony is that most of the commenters declaring the article’s brilliance (probably including this one) are in denial about their own competence and are thinking that must be everyone else.
Brilliant article.
Excellent – best piece on Mumbrella all year
These are very good points, but the ad industry is not alone in the need.
Any , perhaps all organisations need to check themselves from time to time, to weed out. It is staggering to witness the degree to which some organisations will operate quite smoothly on close to maximum incompetence.
How did that fellow at Queensland health get away with millions? What’s going on within Qantas? How did Latham, Rudd, Gillard and again Rudd get the top job?
Why is Ten still producing Television? I don’t know the answers here.
Heaps of honesty here; or is it truth? The importance that many agencies place on winning awards, which are predominantly based on creative content alone, perpetuates the problem. Maybe there should be an award for ‘lemons’.
This article helps to explain my year.
I’ve spent it at the bottom of the Eaon P trough, uncomfortable & insecure with my knowledge of the amount I don’t know. In an organisation overflowing with people at the top of the Dunning-Kruger peak, hugely overconfident in their knowledge of f**k-all.
Thank you. Quite a relief.