Creativity in advertising is dying, and we sure as hell better wake up if we’re going to save it. The Toyota Halftime report, the Excedrin hard hit of the day, etc… ad-nauseam. “Ad” nauseam. That’s the state of our industry with respect to the consumer, nauseating. We are seriously only a clients’ prozac induced delusion away from the “Tampax Red Zone,” or the “Levitra Scoring Drive.” In a world that is increasingly driven by direct-response metrics, the art of advertising and marketing is being lost.

If you’re a Creative Director why don’t you just grab the nearest blunt object, stab yourself in the gut, and drag it across your belly until you bleed out on us. You’d be doing us all a favor you hypocritical sell-out. Remember when Creatives had balls and ran the agency instead of being subject to client whims. They whim’ed the client, and the client was in awe. When was the last time your client was in awe?

Rent “MadMen”… pour yourself a martini, and cry at what you’re not.

The goal of every ad should be to make that ad obsolete. To seed a meme that can grow on it’s own after the presentation of that advertising. If we are going to succeed the impact must last longer than the initial hit, otherwise, you will always have to advertise to sell your product, and that is not building a “brand,” it’s creating an addict.

There is no one right way, or one definitive statement of what is “great” advertising. It lives in a world of abstract perception, however, I will put my stake in the ground, and do it definitively, because that is what is required for good debate. And honest debate of these issues is what will move us to change our industry for the better.

Seek to create something bigger than the Ad; and continue to do so. Do not let the “No’s” dissuade you. Do not get beaten down. Do not try to create an ode to “film noire” as your art piece in advertising. Seek to create Advertising as Art form. The subtlety, the nuanced influence of meme transference. Continue to seek to do that, and you’ll never have to worry if anyone likes what you do. If your advertising sells your clients product long after that advertising ran… you have succeeded.

Success if not an award, a pat on the back, a raise, promotion or even a blow-job. Advertising Success… is immortality.