So far I’ve heard from three readers in response to my last post/poll. Not exactly a groundswell of support, but heartfelt all the same. Consensus would seem to be, as Pam Morrell put it: “If you are talking to ad creatives like me, you are preaching to the already converted.” (Already converted and not too inclined to put much in the collection plate, I might add.) But then she goes on to say: “I wish you could infiltrate the ranks of the client community.” (From your lips to God’s ear, Pam, as long as I don’t have to dress the way they do.)
Gloria Quigley was kind enough to pass along this definition of quixotic: “caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.” So, in other words, I’m trying to throw horseshoes with my tongue is what I believe Gloria is trying to tell me. However, she also made reference to an article in People magazine she’d read a while back reporting on a study that showed “people who don’t have a clue don’t have a clue that they don’t have a clue.” Not what this particular Professor Plum was hoping to hear, but probably an accurate assessment of at least some portion of the advertising/marketing community.
And Jim Bosha went so far as to post his rather post-Apocalyptic take on things here where you can read it at your leisure.
So where do I come out? Right now, I’m just hoping the volume of e-mail cures me of this tendency to act like CNN, where the length of the report is often inversely proportionate to the amount of news contained therein.
“People who don’t have a clue don’t have a clue that they don’t have a clue.” That puts it as well as it can be put, and it’s something I learned many years ago in a hands-on fashion, but more about that in a moment.
As you may recall, Mark, I (under the auspices of my agency at that time) purchased something on the order of 25 copies of “Ordinary Advertising” and distributed them to the top marketing executives at my largest client (I don’t want to talk-out-of-school, so let’s just say that that consumer goods bohemeth rhymes with ‘Mineral Gills’).
Of the dozens of self-satisfied MBA crackers who received a copy, a total of One acknowledged the gesture with both a Thank You note and a positive review of your volume, saying roughly “I just hope the rest of them actually read it.” That guy was gone less than a year later.
Not because he read and absorbed and agreed with your message, mind you. But because he had a clue. Which was the only reason he read and absorbed and agreed with your message in the first place. And in the vast majority of marketing cultures those with a clue can’t count on their bonus (I was once told by the marketing head of a very famous brand that rhymes with ‘Hackswell Mouse’–and this is an actual quote–that “This [creative] is probably a Home Run. But all I need right now is a base-hit).
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi himself was adored amongst peacenics, but he never made any headway at the Pentagon, did he?
Take that glowing review you’ve got from ole’ Dan Wieden. It only serves to prove that preaching to the choir can include the Pope himself. Sadly, that plus a buck-fifty will get you a cup of street-cart coffee.
Back to the “clue” lesson: As a Welcome to Creative Management hazing, our old friend Vel handed me the task of firing a writer who had entered the group on the strength of a spec book that was later revealed to be not his own. The kid was as dumb as a brick sidewalk in Minnesota and had flubbed his every assignment with such embarrassing aplomb I just knew this meeting had to be one he was waiting for.
Nope.
He was gobsmacked. Speechless in his surprise and otherwise shocked that such an event could unfold. When I reported my own shock over his shock to Vel, she said “Bosha, when you’re firing someone because they don’t have a clue, what makes you think they’d have a clue they were going to be fired?”
Let’s modify the words while leaving the wisdom intact and say “Mark, when you’re trying to open the eyes of the marketing establishment, what makes you think they’re the least bit aware of any limited vision?”
Perhaps you should simply re-title the book “How To Squeeze The Best Out Of Your Ad Agency.” Then, with very minimal revisions to the text itself, you might see an uptick in sales numbers among the client types it’s meant to be aimed at.
Sorry. I’m a headline reviser by nature. But remember, the last time I got fired I had a big, fat clue it was going to go down. It just took a few months longer than I had expected. So maybe you want to heed the advice.
It’s free, after all.
Just buy me a cup of coffee if it works, okay?