Midweek Musing !!!

There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success ,famously said Leo Burnett . That is amongst a host of other things that legends like him have left over as food for thought for the succeding generations of advertisers.

I was addressing a group of young Wanna be ad professionals at a media workshop last week when some one asked me this question..

Why do ad makers make seemingly stupid mistakes...?

Seemingly stupid is an excellent usage....... I told the guy ( with his specs and skepticism flowing out through his large eyes he looked like an odd man to be in advertising )

I knew he didnt get his answer... he waited and so did the crowd,,,,!!!

I was there as the subject expert and couldnt give an anser like.. if only we had an answer, all marketers would have made excellent ads.... I had to give them a more believable answer...

Can you give me an example.. I asked him...

Ohhhh........ he exclaimed... very well sir.. here we go.... Liril for instance... the zoo zoo's for instance...?

Oh... noooooo....... the crowd echoed in rejoinder..... the zoo zoo and bad ad??....... no one would agree....

The guy didnt give up... I do not mean that the zoo zoo was bad.. but why it has dissappeared and why the pugs and girls are back?

Can I answer? .....I asked the guy....

Liril I agree the flip flops but the brand and its agency will have a reason... making the brand contemporary or something like that.. may be they dont want the ghost of the past and the waterfalls to linger.. it is their baby.... I said even as the large specs went up and down .....and the zoo zoo's were created only for the IPL season and with IPL over the cute white creatures have gone too.. That is the information I have....

In that case ... he asked again... who decided the quality of ads... the agency or the client?

I smiled and quoted Leo Burnett again .....You can't have good advertising without a good client, that you can't keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for....

Every client gets the agency and advertising that it deserves and every agency ends up in the kind of client that it desreves as well..

Amen !!!