We suck at creative advertising. Yes, you do too.

There are many throries as to why advertising creativity is dying on its ass in Ireland these days. Perhaps it’s an over-emphasis on strategy; meeting every nook and cranny of the anally-retentive brief is stiffling subliminal levels of meaning that connect creative with consumer. Maybe, the foreign, acountant-driven super agencies are blandifying advertising so that they can easily compare one juristiction with another. It could be that during the eighties and early nineties, belt-tightening meant that a generation of loonies missed the opportuinty to come into advertising and that, since then, the straight-laced now control the HR wings of agencies. Can it be that a university degree is prized more highly than a portfolio? Or, its it the fact that, with the internet, we no longer have the excuse to slope off “refrence hunting” and spend the day getting schlitz-faced down the pub? Clients with more marketing experience/qualifications than agency executives may also be playing a part – gone are the days of the idiot son of the Managing Director being shoved into marketing where he couldn’t do any harm.
At best, we are a patchy lot. We measure our successes in award ceremonies run by lovvies who award a few exceptional pieces and retain the rest of the spoils for their clique. These ceremonies are really only an indication of how far ones nose has penetrated the rear of the organisers and have very little to do with genuine creativity. Last year, ICAD seems to have chosen it’s shortlist by reviewing the names on the entry forms rather than the work. I imagine the same will happen this year. That’s why there will be a mcflurry of radio awards going in certain directions and a few agencies will qm-pee themselves, believing that handing themselves awards makes up in some way for their part in murdering creativity.
Personally, I believe all of the above to be true. But the main fault lies squarely at my own door. Every ad I fork out with fifteen seconds of thought that gives the AE an easy sell and the client a no-brainer buy, helps kill creativity. Every ad that I’ve allowed be hacked to death by the ‘consumer is an idiot’ brigade, helps kill creativity. Every stupid defence I’ve made of of ego-inflated shoddy work, helps kill creativity. Perhaps the true purpose of Award Cermonies is to reward those who can be at ease with the dross they produce. For whom, the award is, in itself, the end goal. To whom ‘Creative’ is a job title like ‘Managing Director’ or ‘Spray Tanner’.
No amount of imported flash directors, no amount of awards, no expense account, no business trips abroad, no foreign shoots, no lickspittle praise from ones own posse can make up for a simple, clever idea designed to appeal to a target market and executed beautifully. Look around this year’s ICAD exhibition. You won’t find many ads that fit that bill there. If there was an advertising archive, that’s where you’d find them huddled together, old and alone.
Creative advertising is dead and gone, it’s with Sally O’Brien in the grave (with apology to Yeats).