May 23, 2009
dreck intolerance
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[“Gin And The Cognitive Surplus”. The REAL reason why Madison Avenue is in crisis, the reason nobody in the industry ever talks about. Watch Clay Shirky’s video above, or read his blog post on the same subject.]
Some years ago, me and some fellow advertising creatives gathered at Dave Carlson’s apartment in Chicago, to watch a TV show, drink some alcohol and generally socialize. I can’t remember what TV show we were watching; I do remember that the show was two hours long and had LOTS of commercials.
So like the “industry-insiders” that we were, while the commercials were broadcasting we’d do running commentary on them. “Oh, that’s shit.” “Nice boobs.” “Wow, I like that car!” “Man, who wrote THAT godawful tagline…?“
Two hours later, the show ended. Everybody came to the same conclusion. Two hours of commercial bombardment later, only TWO of the commercials we thought were even remotely good, from a creative and/or professional standpoint. The rest– dozens of them– were complete, useless, noisy dreck.
This 95%-5% Dreck/Quality ratio is about right. An advertising creative wins the occasional award now and then, but 95% of the time, she’s producing dreck. Work three years in an ad agency if you don’t believe me.
The internet, which now dictates the terms of media to TV, a lot more than vice versa, doesn’t handle dreck very well. On the internet, dreck is really easy to ignore, dreck is really easy to kill. So people do ignore it. Sadly, Madison Avenue is not culturally equipped to handle this kind of Dreck Intolerance. Their business model won’t allow it. And like the newspapers, their Pension Fund shareholders won’t allow them to change their business model, no matter what’s happening out there in Reality-ville.
Yes, it’s a bit of a problem…
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Tags: Clay Shirky, Dave Carlson, Madison Avenue
So what does it say about TV’s Dreck/Quality ratio that you can’t remember the TV show at all?
Having worked for 15 years in television promotions, I’d say its about the same… and I’d give the same ratio to the promotions as well (at least, I would to mine — that’s one of the reasons I left).
So only 5% quality shows, and only 5% of those getting quality promos… no wonder people aren’t watching.…
People are still watching though aren’t they? It’s when they stop watching altogether to participate in this next “thing” that matters. It’s when we’re all looking for the mouse, instead of looking for the next show, right? One good show is enough to suck up a lot of time from a lot of people.
That vid is so utterly, totaly fucking on-the-nail.
That is why I record stuff and FF through the ads and why I am sitting now with GV, twitter and my blog dash open with the TV off instead of sitting slack-jawed in front of another repeat of MI2. That’s why I’m re-discovering creativity I’d forgotten I had.
Once you learn that you can break the brainwashing-tube shackles, you come to really, REALLY resent it’s influence.
Maybe drek sells. Maybe something so crap that it sticks in people’s heads works better than a finely crafted masterpiece.
I mean thinking back to the 60s, the only advert I can remember is some incontinently excitable voice exclaiming “It’s Sabco Time!!!”… and the film in the background was the Sabco logo, and a clock, telling the time. That’s all.
Good ad? Bad ad?
I’ve no idea what Sabco is. Some sort of cleaner I think. I can remember the advert though.
Thanks for the video/link and your blog. This is a really interesting way to look at it. I did without TV for 28 years, now I’m catching up a little with DVDs and online. Basically, can’t say as I missed much, except the occasional cultural ref between friends, and a few really great shows.
And that’s why Bounce Rate is the most important Google Web Stat you can track
Hugh, the background from this card on PostSecret from last week is yours, isn’t it? http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_a7jkcMVp5Vg/Sg9xhqt4OCI/AAAAAAAAI3I/Eoh7b4drzkc/s1600-h/orgasm.jpg
I’m not sure if its a problem, or simply a new process that society has developed/discovered. 95% is dreck now, but as creative people continue to transform what they produce into better and better ideas, we may find ourselves with less and less dreck, simply because dreck doesn’t sell.
And if that means TV dissapears because it’s all dreck, then I’m fine with that. Besides Hulu & Youtube do come with a mouse.
dreck , its a problem on tv, its a problem on madison
but hey so what?
make 10 pieces of art (NOT the same old shit you always crank out) …
one will be great, one should be burned immediately, and the rest are in between …
creative life is like that …
and shit does sell stuff … after all, look at the audience ..
This is a really interesting way to look at it. I did without TV for 30 years, now I’m catching up a little with DVDs and online.
Hey, I believe that show was a National Geographic show about the then unnoticed gathering geothermal inflation and it’s cognitive effect of the underlying socioeconomic strata of a burgeoning world population in religious crisis over fossil fuels, but we were too fucking stupid to understand any of that so we just ragged on about the commercials!
Boyz we wuz.