Monday, March 3, 2014

Dear 4A's.

Dear American Association of Advertising Agencies or Dear C-Level Executives at Major Agencies or Dear Head of Holding Companies Who Earn $26 Million Per Annum.

My friend and ex-partner who's been discriminated out of the business for being "old" in his mid-50s, pointed this sitelet out to me. It's called in memoriam and features photos of noted movie people who died in 2013.

Click through a few people, try to think about their contribution or even the era in which they worked. Click. Click. Click. Just about every three or five clicks you get an ad. You can see something new from a Korean conglomerate. Or how to save 15% from JC Penney.

Have we become so avariciously consumerist that even "content" as solemn as tributes to the dead need to be plastered with ads? Does everything from the asses on women's sweat pants to the back of my Metrocard have to have an ad? Is there no decency? No sense of boundaries? No sense of restraint?

We have already turned our most hallowed days into occasions for a mattress sale.

If JFK were shot today, would we have Assassination Specials?

John Updike once said that the problem with modern America is that there is no sense of "Enough." We are driven for more of everything. See the new anti-French Cadillac commercial praising the accumulation of More. We want more stuff. More money. More apartments. More cars. More drugs. More girls. More adipose. More success. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money. More money.

We need, as advertisers, to start saying Enough. 

Enough to greed.

Enough to crass.

Enough.

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