Agency Philosophy

Advertising gets a bad rap. I suppose some common rants against advertising are well deserved. Advertising that lies, intrusive ads, adware that poisons PCs, and ads that use unabashed sex appeal to sell products that have nothing to do with sex are evil, and deserve the flaming reactions they get.

But the abuse of advertising doesn’t mean that advertising isn’t inherently good. I am pro-advertising (and marketing—I’m using “advertising” here to cover a lot of marketing ground, even though advertising is really just one small form of messaging under the massive marketing umbrella). I enjoy and appreciate cleaver creativity and award winning creative (I’ll even backup my TiVo to watch particularly compelling ads). I need advertising to help me navigate the massive number of choices I have as a consumer. Without help I’d be paralyzed. Not only that, I also acknowledge that many of the good things I enjoy for free (television, sports, and most of the web applications I depend on every day) are provided to me based on advertising support.

I used the phrase “inherently good” above. I don’t believe advertising is morally neutral, I believe it’s good, though as with most good things it can be used for evil, or with evil methods (deception, manipulation, and seduction for example). I believe advertising is good because I believe buying and selling is good. I have a profound, even religious, appreciation for how society benefits from and is preserved through our mutual dependence, specialization of skills, healthy competition, and progress. Every time a fair exchange is made between a buyer and a seller, two parties benefit–something good is multiplied. And because buying and selling of goods and services is so good, advertising which serves this end is, in my opinion, a very good thing.

Because I believe in advertising I have the utmost respect for advertising agencies that so skillfully craft ads that help their clients sell. Especially as marketing in this increasingly complicated environment becomes all the more difficult to navigate. But this also means I have a distaste for agencies that degrade the virtues of advertising; figuring that the ends justify the means in their use of whatever lies, tricks or immoral imagery will sell. Fortunately, over the many years I’ve worked with agencies, I’ve found that most agencies do good, and surprisingly only a few engage in practices that give advertising a bad name.

For those many agencies striving to serve their clients and ply their trade skillfully I deeply enjoy helping them do this more effectively on the web. In fact, one reason I enjoy this so much is that I believe what’s happening on the web, while currently very disruptive and confusing, is refining the best aspects of marketing, and will weed out the worst.