According to an article in The New York Times “The government says that today 23 percent of fish stocks are not at self-sustaining levels at current fishing pressure.” That means we are fishing those species into negative territory and they will eventually become extinct. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find this same affliction occurring in the advertising business.
For the sake of this discussion let’s just say there are a limited number of people effective at making terrific, original creative – the type of work that people talk about and that actually motives purchase. The fish. Let’s say there are 5,000 of these fish. They may reside at large shops, small shops, digital or be freelancers. The problem is there are millions and millions of assignments out there. Every day. From a simple Google Adwords text ad to a Super Bowl commercial. Who is doing that work? Not the 5,000 fish everybody is trying to land. Too much work for them. All the other swimmers in the water are doing the work. Before everything became fair game for advertising messages and everything became media, there were almost enough creative minds to go around. Today there is not. Creative is being done by anyone with fingers (and I apologize to the digit-challenged population.)
Add to this the fact that the real fish – the 5,000 – are in such demand that they have no chance to mentor or teach. Not until they are toasted; at which point they are, well, toasted.
So what’s the answer? The web, what else? And vision. We need to have the fish set aside some time to share what they know with all the other swimmers. Dave Trott blogs daily and is worth a read. No toast he. David Droga. David Angelo. Tor Myhren. Please step up. Please take some time to replenish the sea. Use the web. Help the young and those willing to learn. Or the business will slide further into a pond filled with farm raised creators and tasteless pellets. Peace.
