What’s Wrong With Advertising Today?

Who are you reaching, if anyone?

Remember when 7UP became The UnCola? Remember when you said, "I can’t believe I ate the whole thing?" Who doesn’t know what kind of tuna Starkist wants? ("Starkist doesn’t want tuna with good taste. They want tuna that tastes good. Sorry, Charlie.") If you’re over 35 and have always lived on this planet, you can probably sing the Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz jingle. Some of you (and you know who you are) probably even remember the Maxwell House coffeepot song.

Every one of those ad campaigns is more than 30 years old. Yet we still remember them today. Okay, quick, think of your favorite ad campaign from, say... the 90s. Can’t think of one? That’s because most of them stank.

Not that there weren’t funny creative television spots in the 90s. Always have been, always will be. But they weren’t memorable, they didn’t become integral to the sponsor’s brand, they didn’t touch us or become part of the popular culture. And that’s what’s wrong with advertising today.

During the Creative Revolution of the 60s and into the 70s, advertising learned how to speak to people in an intimate, colloquial and persuasive manner. Once an advertiser developed a brand identity it stayed through countless repetitions until, in spite of themselves, people began to think of that brand in those terms. Hey, a lot of choosy mothers chose Jif brand peanut butter. Pepsi gave Coke a run for its money with The Pepsi Generation. Back then, advertising worked.

Today, most advertising doesn’t engage us the way the old campaigns did. Some commercials are so intent on amusing us they have nothing to do with the product. We don’t even remember the brand. Other messages are so labored and wordy, we never get into them. Who cares? When you say "brand" today, most marketing people default into logos and color selections; marketing by design rather than retained message. A complete waste of advertisers’ money.

Good advertising should always engage. Nobody wants to read your ad. You have to interest them, make it worth their while. But good advertising also leaves behind a retained message, a mnemonic that’s always associated with the brand and becomes its identity. "We Try Harder." There’s a campaign theme so brilliant and durable it’s run unchanged for more than 40 years. Today’s crop? Most of it won’t see 40 in dog years. (Like "Make 7UP Yours," which will last about as long as soft ice cream in the sun.)

I know what you’re thinking: These examples are all consumer campaigns and you’re selling business-to-business. No difference. Remember Brother Dominic, the Xerox monk? (Xerox owned the market during his tenure, as opposed to "Team Xerox," which tanked.) "Absolutely, Positively Overnight." That put FedEx on the map. IBM’s Charlie Chaplin campaign basically launched the use of PCs by small businesses. (Plus, in all fairness, Avis is far more a business-to-business advertiser than a consumer one.)

A good advertising program can increase market penetration and expand your market share. As part of an overall business strategy, advertising is one of the most powerful tools available for growing your business. But all ads are not created equal. The average campaign just takes up space. (Expensive space, at that!) Your advertising budget is a terrible thing to waste.

If you want your advertising to work harder, use the techniques that made the old campaigns so memorable. Keep your message simple. Provide a clear benefit. Engage your audience with a distinctive style. And develop a sales cycle strategy that integrates your marketing with your sales force. A successful ad campaign becomes a part of us and creates a top-of-mind brand.

Absolutely, positively.

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