Ask Yourself, "Is Advertising Evil?"

It doesn’t have to be.

I believe in advertising, but everywhere I look, we’re doing it wrong.

Business and innovation are the engines that drive this country, and to a large extent, the whole planet.  Advertising is the fuel that runs these twin engines. Just like regular fuel, we need to be clean, and efficient, and good for the planet. Too often, we are not.

As members of the human race, we have a responsibility to be better.

I see so much anxiety inducing, braggadocios, bullish content that people can’t wait to click away.  We live in a society where consent is so essential to everything, yet we are still try to force feed ads to people. Why? Within the creative process, I see wasted energy and ego service. On set, I see a breathtaking lack efficiency and inflexibility. We treat “the creative” as a burden we have to bear, as opposed to bringing our “creativity” to bear on the problems we encounter.

We can do so much better.  For the world, and the bottom line.

Advertising has the chance to be something wonderful. A short, sharp, immediate medium that can spark joy and inspire good. A beautiful and powerful artform genetically engineered to inspire change. We need to make sure that it’s a change for good.

We need to be artful, efficient, and good for the world, all at once. And we can be. 

If that sounds like a call to action, let’s talk.

Ian