When did ‘advertising’ become a dirty word?
Is adland afraid of using the word “advertising”? Sean Cummins argues the industry needs to take more pride in what it does.
What’s wrong with “advertising?” I don’t mean the industry (although there is definitely a lot to talk about there), I mean the word “advertising.” Because that is the business I am in, but I seldom hear the word these days.
Instead, I hear everyone saying every word under the sun but the a-word.
Has the word “advertising” become the advertising industry’s “Macbeth?” Throughout the theatrical world, so loaded is that title with superstition and even a supposed curse that Shakespeare’s wicked work is referred to as “The Scottish Play.” But those thespians are a flighty lot. Surely we don’t have the same concern about “advertising.” Or do we?
Perhaps we can trace the start of de-advertising the advertising industry back to that fateful day in the late 1990s when Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising changed its name worldwide to Saatchi & Saatchi Communications.
I remember not thinking too much about the symbolism of this at the time except to think “those Saatchi people are a bunch of wankers.” But not just any sort of wankers. Advertising wankers.
In some sort of etymological cleansing, the A-word seems to have all but disappeared from our industry vocabulary.
One day I woke up and “advertising” was replaced with new words. And I didn’t even notice it until I found myself trying to understand what branded content actually is. Hang on, isn’t branded content …. advertising?
Of course it is advertising. But unfortunately, that makes branded content seem not as shiny and sexy and new. And of course that’s where there is an interesting tension in the ummm, well, whatever industry I work in right now. So don’t tell anyone.
By removing the word “advertising” from our industry, it effectively means that anyone with a camera device and a graphics package to superimpose a logo can be in the industry formerly known as advertising. Because they are doing branded content.
Which of course is like saying I shot some footage of a busker knocking cymbals with his knees on my Samsung Galaxy s4 and that makes me a filmmaker (by the way, was mentioning my phone’s maker disguised as native content? Was it an endorsed editorial? Was it cash for comment? Influencer strategy? A clever ambassador program?). Samsung, Samsung, Samsung.
This is why I can’t understand why the word “advertising” has gone away. Because none of the stuff I really see out there is exceptional or ground-breaking advertising. It is its own different thing. But it is not advertising. Good advertising makes you do something — not passively sit and consume without any compulsion to do much other than “view” or “like.” Or (furball cough) “share.”
I am going to butcher a couple of quotes once said by someone about television. They went something like this: “Television is like chewing gum for the eyes. Boring, tasteless and indigestible.” And “Television is a called a medium. Because anything good on it is rare.” Now these pithy epithets were railing against the quality of content on TV during its heyday. Which apparently someone said has passed.
Whether TV prematurely died and was buried or not, the same could be said for any form of branded content. There is a real risk that branded content is trying to do a job that TV used to do — provide entertainment that was sporadically sponsored by advertising, but — and get this — all in one. Wow. Talk about new and improved.
Entertainment should be entertainment. And branded pieces should do what they do best — relentlessly and unapologetically promote the client’s brand in such a compelling way as to inspire behavior change and action. In short, buy the product or the message.
When you watch TV, you know when the ads come on, because they are ads. But to move away from the power and force of the advertising style is to forgo a powerful truth about human nature: People don’t actually buy things — they get sold things. And everyone loves a passionate sales pitch. I mean, everyone.
Branded content has been called, and I hate this phrase, “storytelling” (my second most-hated word since “journey”). Which is nice and well meaning. But the story better be damn good. Otherwise it is an anecdote without a point. And I hear those at dinner parties all the time.
Advertising is a very powerful combination of communication, art, psychology and intuition. It is about selling. Not telling. And selling is a skill that requires a result — buying.
I want “advertising” reinstated at the forefront of what we do. Not to be hushed away like it is some sort of quaint expression from a dusty past. We will leave that for words like “colour television” and “cassette tape”.
And I don’t know about you, but whenever I have to fill in a form that asks what occupation I am in, I don’t write social media director or branded content creator. I write “advertising.”
Sean Cummins is founder and global CEO of advertising agency cummins & partners
This article has been republished from Ad Age, with the permission of Sean Cummins
Amen to that Sean.
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Too right!
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Ditto that too!
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I totally agree there is incredibly ‘craft experience’ behind all great advertising and that this is a craft that we should continue to respect and celebrate – but isn’t the issue that people are increasingly finding ways to avoid advertising and being sold too…and thus the need to find new ways to reach and engage audiences?
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Advertising a dirty word, Sean? No dirtier than words you use to describe other jobs.
Many people who work in advertising are like people who work in other businesses—they kill the English language.
Many ad people use management jargon. ‘Competitive advantage’, ‘transparency’, ‘accountability’, ‘client’, ‘key’, ‘going forward’ blah blah blah. Meaningless sludge.
One company advertises for a “Content Lead”. What does a content lead do? They “. . . drive a holistic content strategy and lifting the quality of the content produced in order to make our audience stand to attention. It means behaving like an editor. It means driving the highly creative content engine room. It means opportunities to tear up the rule book.”
Many ad people avoid clear concise words. Because clear concise words help you identify good and honest aims (and incompetence and lies).
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Bingo.
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He speaks the truth. And people should listen to him. The most original voice in advertising.
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Can’t fault Sean’s argument at all. It would also help if mid to junior agency people across all disciplines learnt to sell their work, using agreed strategies and briefs to do so.
Also of course if mid to junior client people were also mentored as to how to buy work, it would improve the business exponentially. Learning to think, drawing on their experience as it builds and developing true intuition, instead of trying to second guess what others up the line might think….
According to the Economist last year, CEO’s of the UK’s top 100 companies apply on average 60% intuition to all their decisions. Something to aspire to for the Advertising decisions in this country.
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Hallelujah.
Advert from the Latin ‘to move towards’.
If it’s paid for it’s advertising.
If it’s earned, it’s pr.
If it’s owned, it’s self publishing.
Easy.
I heard some ‘PR, journos, content marketers’ announcing the death of Mass Marketing yesterday. Yea, yesterday! FFS
Not 15 years ago when PVR’s were introduced and ‘advertising’ became ‘endangered’.
Not 10 years ago when Internet marketing would be the death knell to ‘mass marketing’.
Not c8 years ago when Facebook started taking money for pushing posts and Google for sponsoring ads.
They didn’t equate ‘digital to ‘mass marketing’ at all.
Mass marketing never existed. Jeez.
People that don’t understand how big brands communicate the products they designed for real segments will never get it.
MM was always an illusion.
Benefits move people. Advertising isn’t just attention seeking.
But crap one dimensional targetless advertising moves no one.
Say it loud, and say it proud. I’m an Ad Man. I move people.
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there you have it folks, advertising is advertising.
from now on instead of bashing out a paragraph of invective every time i see some hack posting about their new ambassadorial crowdsourced branded journalism tableau, i’m just going to link to this article.
thankyou sean cummins.
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I have even noticed that in some circles, if you watch commercial TV or receive circulars in your letterbox and read those circulars, you are treated with disdain. In a lot of cases, it is advertising’s role to expose us to newer products and have us aware of these products.
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While I loved being nearly sold by Sean’s piece, in the end I’m not convinced that the brothers Saatchi’s switch to communications didn’t get it right. I think most people would agree that a beautifully designed online form isn’t an ad but it can help sell a lot of stuff. So if your agency’s aspiration is to improve all the ways that your clients connect with their audiences, saying you’re in the communications business can help open up opportunities. It’s good advertising, basically.
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From their website. Wonder if they do advertising?
“The force of Cummins&Partners is the partners who bring together the different disciplines that are the foundation of our creative:media agency model. A mix of strategy, media, creative and digital leaders who believe in creating a better and more holistic experience for clients. And their customers.”
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Sean – advertising trying to disguise its purpose in any way is naïve these days. The bulk of consumer dollars is in the fists of a natively wary audience. They have always had the bullshit radar dialled up to 10.
The relentless push behind some new name for advertising and what it does is no more than a white flag saying “we can’t con them, so now what do we do?”
Go back to the basics. Go to market with a product that has a relevant point of difference – reinforce the relevance with your advertising (in whatever medium that is) – get sales.
Getting the message across to people has become confused with getting the logo across to people, which isn’t advertising, it’s branding – the easy bit.
Hope you’re well, mate, and nicely argued.
Jamie Everingham
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advertising – deception for financial gain.
spin it all ya like, people will always hate that shit.
doesn’t make it unprofitable.
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Advertising is a fine word, a fine profession and an honourable art form.
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Yawn. Look at me. Look at me.
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@What is this?
I presume you say this because you’re a renowned commentator on the biz? Or a lazy wannabe? Either way fortune favors the brave, not the brat youbeen to be. This article appeared in Adage. Ni small feat. And has been the most popular article currently posted there. So that’s what this is.
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“People don’t actually buy things — they get sold things. And everyone loves a passionate sales pitch. I mean, everyone.”
I hate being sold to, however if ‘things’ refers to utter shite, then I guess I do agree.
I was in the market recently for an Android phone (because I hate being sold to and IOS corner you and force their products (‘sell’) you only them. So the alternative is an Android phone.
I went online and Googled: ‘best android phones 2015’ and I clicked on the organic (free) search results and read a variety of of articles, which contained expert and consumer reviews and so on and so forth. The evident advertorials (or content marketing, or even native advertising) were soon sniffed out and ignored.
I did my research and whilst the Samsung S6 ranks very highly, it is also very expensive and there are some apparent floors with it’s security, so the Google Nexus 6 was the go. It is a little big, however I was expecting that from the ‘warts n all’ reviews that I had digested, which managed my expectations fully, once the product was received. I was even able to scope out online where the cheapest place was to buy and deleted cookies ahead of doing just that, (so that any e-commerce analytic’s would show that I had gone into the site as a result of searching, in duckduckgo for their company name). Duckduckgo might be an agenda item in their next marketing meeting, who knows..?
I love the phone and to this day have never seen an advertisement for one. (I couldn’t believe I would ever own a Motorola again, but I do and again it is a great phone.) – Is this native advertising? (Oh stop it.)
I strongly believe that reputation, service and a great product will sell itself without any need for advertising. (Rather like a little cafe in my local neighbourhood, which has people queuing to get in pretty much all week long.) Do you think they advertise? No they do not. Locals know how good the place is and shout about it, to each other and online: Great food, great service: great atmosphere: amazing coffee, which services the local community with a smile.
NOW, in context to mass produced, inferior toot, that needs to be sold to keep a CEO and the board loaded: yes advertising is where it is at and without advertising these products would not get shifted at the rates at what they do currently. PERHAPS that is why advertising has become a dirty word? The products that actually make peoples live better and work amazingly well, do not need to be advertised. The majority of the ad industry is peddling crap, which isn’t really helping society, in fact many would argue that the advertising industries’ impact on our societies and communities is a negative one, second only to that of the greedy investment bankers. Could that be why advertising is a dirty word?
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hmmm, agree, but needs an edit
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Totally agree with this Sean. Just wondering why you called Cummns&Partners a creative:media agency then, instead of an advertising agency?
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Not sure you can flat out ignore the huge disruption to the broadcast+advertising business model brought about by the internet. That’s really when all this started. And if advertisers decide to call their new tactics something else to help clients see a new way of reaching their fragmented and disengaged audience then so be it.
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I agree partly with sandman, there are significant chunks of this conversation that have been left out, not sure whether that was intentional?
I had a chuckle at the comparison to MacBeth – but I don’t like “advertising” – it repels me. Whether thats right or wrong – thats the reality for me. You say “advertising” I disengage immediately – hence why some people feel the need to reposition the name.
I refuse to watch commercial TV because of advertising, I ignore billboards, listen to podcasts (not the radio) and I syndicate all my content to recieve news and information that I trust (and know will be minimal advertising). Advertising might not be dead or dirty – but it’s certainly undesirable to me.
I think Mass Marketing is DEAD – because of the internet and digital disruption the marketplace is fragmented and disengaged and as such require different tactics, niche tactics to gain customer attention.
For me as a GenY, advertising isn’t dead, I know it exists – but I try to avoid it like the plague. It reeks of laziness and if your “pro advertising” in the sense that you have a message and desire to scream it loud enough to get your attention – your simply proving to the younger generations that you’re not worth their time. Be clever and more direct – give us content that we find valuable that doesn’t necessarily sell your brand or your products – but it WILL gain our respect and attention.
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I looked through my Facebook feed this morning. I have 1000+ ‘friends’ but funnily enough I didn’t see one ‘conversation’ about a brand.
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A lot of current advertising efforts particularly around retail are failing miserably….here’s why:
Our washing machine died so I looked at reviews and after comparing prices on retailer,visited a store and negotiated a better deals than the so called sale price and it was delivered the next morning. All this took less than 24 hours.
For the last week I have been besieged with ads online from retailers including the retailer I purchased from offering me worse deals than the one I purchased.
Yes advertising has changed as has the way consumers purchase. The only trouble is that all that big and small data captured isn’t applied in a way that relates to how consumers really purchase. In the end the wasted efforts of retailers clearly look more than a little foolish.
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@Tony comment 25
I was looking at campervan hire in France and researched it fully, on and off for around a month, (online), ahead of making a purchase. My holiday in France was over a year ago now and yet I am still getting served up Campervan ad’s on websites. I can clear cookies, of course. It is interesting though isn’t it. If the client is paying CPC / CPA, then they are not wasting money. If they are paying CPM, then they are.
In terms of branding for this campervan hire company who is following me around the interweb: well they were far too expensive and their ratings were shocking, so I would never use them anyway; probably why they are advertising so heavily…?
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Nailed it.
While it’s not quite central to the theme, also agree on your hatred of the words ‘journey’ and ‘storytelling’.
Reminded me of that other shittily-overused word ‘curated’.
And anyone using the non-word ‘obligated’ should be obliged to write an apology to the rest of us.
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