Too Much Sensitivity Stands in Way of Creativity
Guarding Everything We Say Makes It Hard to Communicate
Bart Cleveland |
Sure, there is progress in our sensitivity, but should it be to the degree that we take away our ability to communicate? Some the classic novels of the 19th century are being lost to the politically correct updates. I'm a Southern boy with a Southern accent. It's part of what makes me different. I don't particularly like the stereotypes that so freely label Southerners, but frankly, if we didn't have them, I'd miss it. When we lose the ability to laugh at ourselves we lose the ability to laugh.
Our "sensitivity" has virtually killed our ability to communicate quickly and memorably in advertising. It's left the only tone of voice we can have pretty vanilla. Fortunately, there are still examples of advertisers who are willing to take the heat because they are committed to the attitude of their target. Case in point: Burger King. The "Whopper Virgins" campaign has taken some recent heat and it doesn't surprise me. Not because I think the criticisms are valid but because it's a lob pitch for those that want to A) Supposedly protect the world from things that might damage someone's self-esteem, and B) Keep mediocre work justified.
Why this is the case is simple in my mind: This industry is lazy. We want things to be easy. We want to receive accolades for doing the mundane. Since society is so fixated on being PC, we join in, bashing that which might be a bit insensitive to someone. Last year it was the suicidal robot for GM, now it's BK Virgins. We can't control the activist who uses advertising as a springboard for media coverage, but we can certainly control our own urge to be self-righteous.
It's time to swing the pendulum back. As the columnist surmised, we need characters like Archie Bunker to make a point. These days advertising can't use anything remotely close to that sort of example. Stereotypes don't even make it out of the agency, much less into the client's conference room. I try not to offend people with the work I do, but I'm finding it impossible because it's become very fashionable to be offended.
In the movie "The Matrix," Agent Smith tells Neo that the first Matrix was designed as a perfect utopia where everyone lived in a blissful state. It was a complete failure. Neo's world rejected it because it was too perfect. I figure part of that perfection was that everyone was exactly alike. No one ever offended anyone else. No one ever stereotyped anyone. No one used our own frailty as a communication tool. Most of the advertising we're doing these days would feel quite at home in Matrix 1.0.
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Again, a great post. Reflective and poignant. Yup, things have gotten pretty watered down these days. Could you imagine trying to sell the Levy's jewish rye campaign today? Bill Bernbach and his crew where a small shop in the early 60's when they introduced "ethnicity" into the marketing equation. DDB's Levy's campaign ("You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's") elevated the bread maker to the largest seller of rye bread in New York which in turn helped his agency to attract the first of many big international clients. The images set against the copy were a cross section of the racial diversity that is New York City- a native American, a young black boy, an elderly Asian man, an Italian grandmother, ect. It was this type of real and insightful advertising that helped kick into gear the first so called "creative revolution."
In a time of social change, Levy's challenged us to understand what makes us all different while pointing out what makes us all the same. I think the "Whopper Virgins" making a similar statement. As does the Pepsi's new " Optimism" work. I applaud both of their efforts.
It will be interesting to see how "sensitivity" marketing will evolve over the next four years.
Advertising today doesn't seem to be able to much of anything in it's ever shrinking "safe zone". I don't think that the Levy's campaign Charlie mentioned would have made it if it had been done today. The idea of "[show]what makes us all different while pointing out what makes us all the same" is almost forbidden because we don't want to make anyone feel bad by pointing out that they might be different, and sadly the "what makes us all the same" part of the message never gets through.
What strikes me as funny is people I meet tell me they think we (advertising professionals) are a bunch of liars, but these same people cry foul when we touch on truths like those in the Levy's campaign. We've simply lost our sense of humor as a society. But hey there's always the European and Asian ad markets :-)
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"You're a good caddy Danny... something to be very proud of."
Joey Dumont
Heaven is where the cops are English,the chefs are French,the engineers are German, your banker is Swiss and your lover is Italian.
What is Hell?
Hell is where the chefs are English, the cops are German, the engineers are French, your banker is Italian and your lover is Swiss.
Get the point?
Politically Correct (PC) in advertising is SOP (standard-operating-procedure) and has been since we integrated psychology into advertising. Garret Donaldson's comment-and-indelicate-racial-diatribe is indicative of what it means to be Politically-Incorrect (PI). Offending everyone is not what advertising seeks to do or accomplish. Comments on advertising that causes racial-divides are inappropriate no matter what the intended outcome, be it by design or unintended serendipity. Like Levy's campaign ("You-don't-have-to-be-Jewish-to-love-Levy's"), even though I prefer "We-Answer-to-a-Higher-Power" for Hebrew National's Kosher Hot Dogs. Both while humorous failed to develop a mindset relationship with the consumer and instead served to "Tell and Sell" bread and meat and may be considered demeaning to many people's religious beliefs. Bread and meat is not what Judaism is about.
Better to stand clear of what Bart said: (...) "Our "sensitivity" has virtually killed our ability to communicate quickly and memorably in advertising." (...). I seriously doubt that any racial comment or regional insult would help anyone communicate effectively in advertising. Instead of having your meaning misconstrued, astute advertisers stay well clear of comments, sayings, images, sounds or anything that could in any way cause racial or regional divides-or-derision.
Yes, the brands are positioned as "Jewish and Kosher" perhaps the real message strategy, but missing the opportunity to find a mindset position where the consumer finds equal exchanges and preference for these products above all others to become brand loyal. What Jew in NYC didn't know about Levy's and Hebrew National? Did Jewish humor make me switch from Nathan's Hot Dogs, even though I enjoyed the spots: nope, Nathan's rules in NYC.
In-the-21st-Century advertising is no longer about "Selling-and-Telling" or worrying about being politically correct, as Bart's alleged advertising article seems to allude. But instead advertising today is about making mindset relationships with the consumer and the brand. A brand-preference where the consumer identifies with the brand with his or her lifestyle, an association with the brand that goes beyond product or service function to one that says who they are.
Nike's 'Just do it' hit its twenty-year milestone recently and still relates well. Nike changed advertising by not 'Selling-and-Telling' but instead making lifestyle associations with a brand with assistance with the health craze and a host of celebrity-endorsements. Branding-and-advertising will never be the same again.
Today Barrack Obama has done the impossible. Like the unknown newcomer Nike entering an established category of strong contenders he beat 'Telling-and-Selling' hero. McCain to win the White House on the strength of 'Change...Yes-We-Can!" Not by 'Telling-and-Selling,' or by creating racial-or-regional divides. But instead by painting the Matrix utopia you callously deride. People do want better and aspire to more and perfection. In Advertising, I was taught, to-aim-for-excellence, is-excellence.
Mnemonic devices are so powerful. They communicate instantly. The Marlboro Man = Heroic. Aunt Jemima = Servant. Josephine The Plummer = Ingenious. The Silverdust Twins = Servant. The Brawny Guy = Rugged. Uncle Ben = Servant. Mr. Whipple = Protective. The "Waaaz up" crew = Illiterates. The White Knight = Powerful. Sambo = Primative. The Maytag Repair Man = Unneccesary. Juan Valdez = Peasant. The Ajax Man = Powerful. The Frito Bandito = Criminal.
"Sure, there is progress in our sensitivity, but should it be to the degree that we take away our ability to communicate?" What exactly are we at a loss to communicate, Mr. Cleveland? What is it that an industry that has been cited by the government and now faces a multi-million dollar class action suit for documented hiring bias has lost? It's ability to objectify those in society that don't look like it, while immortalizing those that do?
You miss the stereotypes, do you Mr. Cleveland? The bravado of the slave markets? The comraderie of the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan? The exhilaration of police dogs being set on school children? The excitement of blowing up four little girls in a Birmingham church?
Let's all sing together. Oh I wish I were in the land of cotton/ Old times there are ner' forgotten/ Look away, look away, look away Dixieland.
Old times sir are 'ner forgotten, in advertising.
"What really made this columnist's views stand out to me was the fact that he was African-American." Not the content of his words, but the color of his skin? That's what made his views stand out? Was that because you believe that all African-Americans think alike?
Your arrogance is almost as staggering as your ignorance as to what makes for great advertising. "This industry is lazy," you say? This industry isn't lazy Mr. Cleveland, this industry is clueless. The audience has passed you and your industry by.
"Sure, there is progress in our sensitivity, but should it be to the degree that we take away our ability to communicate?" Mr. Cleveland, what has taken away your ability to communicate is your inability to relate to an audience that no longer finds your mindset meaningful or relevant to their way of life.
Instead of lamenting the out-dated concept of "Political Correctness" you should get out of your ivory tower and your gated community and go listen to what real people think, care and feel. But don't venture to speak. The minute you open your mouth you will give yourself away. They will know you work in advertising.
http://MadisonAveNew.com
Dead on too. Charlie (above) is right. Can you just imagine presenting that Levy's campaign today? I'm seeing total dead silence in the conference room after you unveil the last board. PC just isn't reality.
The Motrin Moms incident is a great example as someone else noted. And remember the "drive it like you stole" it car ad in Canada that was pulled because people who'd been hit by someone in a stolen car were offended? How dopey is that?
In a way, I think Harry Webber's hate-filled comments made your argument for you Bart. Completely off the deep end with sometimes marginally relevant points. How he managed to relate your post on PC to the KKK and bombing churches in the south was, in a twisted sort of way, pure genius.
But I guess he has a point. Clearly, the decline of Western civilization started with that damn Frito Bandito.
The world needs to just get over itself.
The keys in the above article lie in the line "lost the ability to laugh at ourselves". While shows like 'Amos & Andy', England's 'Black & White Minstrel Show' and the like have been shown the door, never to return (and rightly so), shows like CBC's 'Little Mosque On The Prairie' and Britain's 'Ali G' thrive, despite their political incorrectness. It's the humor that saves these two. Ricky Gervais excels in balancing the two, to the point where even my mother, a Cancer sufferer, can laugh at his deliberate and total intolerance of "the ill".
Would Peter Sellers' Southern Asian in the film The Party have been such a lovable figure as a bumbling Hugh Grant type? Absolutely not. And the film is still in circulation today. Why? Not because the Southern Asian Lobbyist Group hasn't seen it yet, but because the humor within and the role itself are both perfect, and 'art', and therefore acceptable.
There is tolerance where the art is sublime. But first we must learn to laugh at ourselves and the human condition, instead of the poor man sitting next to us who doesn't have the right burger.
I suggest everyone spend a bit more time in the European ad archives to catch up with the rest of the world on what's funny. Or creative for that matter.
I agree with Charlie - we're seeing a lot more ad work that embraces multiple perspectives, as well as juxtaposes different social or political elements, in the effort to develop constructive thinking and inspire change.
Now, to some other point here, whether these efforts are done "manipulatively" is another matter altogether; however, advertising is ultimately a story-telling medium that relies, or has relied, on a healthy dose of rhetoric. So if you take that away, are we still left with a new perspective?
Advertising is no longer 'story-telling,' a throwback to advertising's roots founded in Journalism.
Journalists are 'story-tellers,' advertising people are not.
My comments aptly describe 21st Century Advertising. The only 'perspective' I see in the article and many of the comments made is that this is how we distinguish good and bad advertising and those who create it.
I hate to go back to 'I'll dumb-it-down-for-you," but Mr. Cleveland's comments and those of the commenter Woody, with his off-hand endorsement of Cleveland's rubbish, is indicative of what is not advertising in 2009. Moreover, it has no place in advertising.
While I seldom defend anyone who calls Advertising a 'Sunset Industry,' Harry Webber's take on Mr. Cleveland's alleged article on Advertising is spot on. It is intended to be interpreted as someone who is outraged at Cleveland's comments, suggesting that sayings, images, sounds or anything else that could in any way cause racial or regional divides-or-derision are somehow acceptable. They flatly are not. Advertising Agencies and Advertisers do take themselves seriously, and they have an ethical responsibility to callout such nonsense and misperception of what advertising is and does when they see it for the sake of the profession. Thus, my pissing upstream comment. And I am sure, Mr. Webber's indignation.
"we've made considerable progress in our society." Yes we have. But not as an industry. We are failing to engage our audience on a monumental scale. The problem isn't that we need our hands untied to create something that is memorable. The problem is that we need our brains untied to get beyond messages that substitute "creative" for "meaningful."
Meaningful is far more difficult. Memorability is virtually non-existent. Persuasion has become a non-starter. Creating brand preference is now a lost art. What is lamented here is the loss of the Divine Right of Creative Directors to play instead of dig. The term Politically Correct is just another way to lament the passing of an era when we worked for awards and the kudos of our contemporaries and client mandates be damned.
I am certainly no stranger to words that offend. Look how many of you took offense to my comments herein. That is because they were not Politically Correct in the context of this forum. Advertising is too important and too embattled to not be Politically Correct.
Lest we forget, it is not our money we are spending. Taking our clients into risky waters is the height of irresponsibility. No one in the audience is asking to be advertised to. We are guests in their state of consciousness. It is polite to not offend your host.
But to paraphrase the words of the immortal Morphius. "Take the blue pill and you can go to back sleep and wake up believing whatever you want to believe about great advertising. Take the red pill and I show you how deep your concerns about being too PC can be taken by those who have the right to their opinion that advertising does not have to offend anyone to be effective.
http://MadisonAveNew.com
After reading your comment to Harry, "Jimmy the Greek' comes to mind.
Can you really be that obtuse?
I think there may be a little too much "sensitivity" here with a bit of over thinking your blog.
But these sort of blogs are ripe for a debate. And very engaging to read the the reactions.
Let's throw this into the dialogue...Is the new "G" commercial featuring Lil Wayne racist?
All black athletes,rapping, Ali is the greatest "goat"....where is Michael Phelps, yo?
Discuss.
With all due respect, did you miss Kerry Walsh, Misty May, Mia Ham, Chaz Ortiz, Jabawokeez, John Wooden, Terje Haakonsen, Tom Brady, J-Mac, Jimmy Johnson, Picabo Street, Nadia Comeneci and Payton Manning? Am I overthinking or are you underthinking? You boys from New Mexico really do need to get out more.
As for the racism, the Gatorade campaign represents the worst kind of racism there is. The racism of ignorance of the facts. The bias of irresponsibility. In the African American community the letter "G" means only one thing. "Gangsta." So every time a black teen sees the red billboard with it's lone white "G" they register "Bloods." Every time they hear Lil Wayne rap "What is "G"? That voice in their head yells "Gangsta!"
Every athlete in this campaign knows this to be true. But, hell, money talks and "sensitivity" walks. Quaker knows this but Gee Wiz, what a great branding opportunity. What's a few thousand dead kids got to do with great advertising? So what if gang-related homicide is the largest cause of death in teens 14-18? Or am I being entirely too sensitive?
This isn't about a debate, Mr. Herbstreith. This is about taking you people to school. Now overthink on that, yo.
http://MadisonAveNew.com
No, I didn't miss the all white commercial you allude to. Obviously, this subject is has hit a nerve with you. As for your comment about "you boys from New Mexico need to get out more"- what does that mean? As if you are in touch with America from your Orange Curtain residence. And for your information, I have been living and working in Manhattan for the past 20 years. As for your website, why do you call it Madison Avenue New when you live 2000 miles away? And why is your voice is so full of hatred? Pardon the stereotype, but we New Yorker, we call your type "bloviators"
Have a nice day in LA LA land.
"No, I didn't miss the all white commercial you allude to."
Then why would you allude to an all-black commercial as being "racist" if you knew the campaign was multicultural?
"Obviously, this subject is has hit a nerve with you."
Ignorance will always hit a nerve with me Mr. Herbstreith. In this day of underperforming marketing to equate sensitivity as a barrier to creativity is just myopic.
"As for your comment about "you boys from New Mexico need to get out more"- what does that mean? As if you are in touch with America from your Orange Curtain residence."
My work speaks for itself Mr. Herbstreith. As your comments speak for themselves.As for being in touch with America, my campaigns are famous around the world and I live in the Hollywood Hills not Orange County.
"And for your information, I have been living and working in Manhattan for the past 20 years."
Then you should know better then to question if the "G" campaign is racist and then take issue with the obvious answer. As for living and working in New York I have had my rent-controlled apartment on West 58th Street since 1978. Nice place to visit but I no longer have to work there.
"As for your website, why do you call it Madison Avenue New when you live 2000 miles away?"
The website is called "MadisonAveNEW because it deals with new ways of looking at the practice of advertising. You should read it sometime. You might learn something, as I have learned from reading what you have to say.
"And why is your voice is so full of hatred?"
You mistake indignation for hatred Mr. Herbstreith. I don't care enough to hate anything to do with anything as trivial as advertising.
"Pardon the stereotype, but we New Yorker, we call your type "bloviators""
That you would dare speak for "New Yorkers" is laughable. Especially by calling someone pompous. We New Yorkers are the most pompous critters on the planet.
Enjoy your weekend Mr. Herbstreith. You've certainly made mine.
http://MadisonAveNew.com
Regarding the "G" campaign, I only pose the question if the work is racist...furthering the dialogue Mr. Cleveland speaks of in this blog. You on the other hand are the one passing judgement on it. As you seem to do with every word you utter. This is not a pissing match comparing careers. I respect your opinion even if I disagree with it. I think you should think about that when you make your personal attacks and profiling on a blog. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Case closed.