Advertising ‘isn’t a guilty pleasure’
People working in the advertising industry need to stop seeing it as a guilty pleasure, the chairman of the Australian Association of National Advertisers said in a speech last night.
In an address given after the Advertising Federation of Australia’s AGM, Joe Talcott told the audience:
“Advertising is well and truly in the spotlight. The public have a love-hate relationship with this business. They love Mad Men, they love The Gruen Transfer in the way they loved Bewitched. Then they will go out and buy a PVR so they can skip the commercials.
“Lots of us are in the spotlight, like it or not. But we accept too many of the criticisms. Someone said to me working in advertising is a guilty pleasure and that’s got to change because it’s not true.”
Yeah, but Bewitched and The Gruen Transfer aren’t repeated ad naseum like learning a song parrot fashion. That’s the essential difference.
You watch “Two and a Half Men”, you accept you have to watch ads. You even feel entertained and informed by some of them. Or it’s an excuse to go pee or make coffee, or both. But for the love of God I cannot understand how anyone would subject themselves to the teeth grindingly frustrating experience of trying to watch a movie on pay tv. The number of ads. is bad enough, the repetition of an ad. within one break is ridiculous and does not benefit the advertiser. It is enough to drive me weeping to the nearest bookshelf. Ah! Hang on a minute! Do Angus & Robertson own Channel Nine?
Joe makes some good points. You know things are bad when agencies fall over themselves to avoid using the word ‘advertising’ in their names or descriptions of what they do! How about a little pride? Be an adman/woman and proud of it!