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Disorderly conduct


Matt Cooney, the thoroughly gentlemanly editor of Idealog has asked me to send him my next column about advertising for the magazine.

Sometimes I feel a little like a fraud writing about the subject. Putting aside the aesthetics of advertising (if you follow this blog you'll know I delight in cleverly conceived and executed commercials), I find it a little awkward because I feel the advertising business must move forward. As it stands it is very old fashioned. There is a gigantic shift coming - I can sense it - and I fear that the education of young advertising people is preparing them for the business as it was in the 1970's. Does that sound harsh? I don't mean it to be. The main issue I have is that the narrative form widely used in advertising is based on a logic that doesn't seem to hold water anymore. Beginning, middle, end.

I don't really have any answers, but plenty of questions. I suppose that is a good thing? Perhaps that should be my theme for the column? Five questions. There you go…

Thanks, you've been helpful.

If you have any ideas, I'm open and have a week...

By the way I love the quote:

"A film must have a beginning, middle and end but not necessarily in that order"
Jean Luc Godard
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Comments

  1. Flaphead 61911:07 am

    How, exactly, do you see changes in advertising culture manifesting themelves within the next 2 years in NZ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoeGreenz4:04 pm

    Good Question

    ReplyDelete
  3. MG10:18 pm

    An excellent topic for public consideration. Good on you for tackling this. More than ever before, media and creative need to be executed in tandem and on-the-fly. The current isolation of creative from media will fast become an obsolete business model. Original thinking is still a mandatory and I don't believe that the industry has stopped passing the value of this on. That said, experience will count for a lot in the next few years.

    ReplyDelete

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