What’s going on in the creative world? Where has good creative gone? Why does everything look the same? Why do some things look like a kindergartener with a box of crayons banged it out? Isn’t there an original idea out there? Someone? Anyone?
You know you’ve seen what I’m talking about. Think about the last time you flipped through some magazine ads, or watched a TV commercial. You’ve all witnessed the slow death of good creative: Ads that don’t make sense, make you think way too hard, have too much crap in them, make your stomach weak or the biggest bust of all, ads that leave you with no idea who the advertiser is, or what they do!
Take AMC’s new show “The Pitch” On the preview episode, two well-known agencies that will remain nameless-one from the West Coast and the other from the South–vie to become the agency that wins the Subway Sandwich business and market its new breakfast sandwich. Both shops’ creative was lukewarm at best, and the shop that was selected happened to stumble over a Rapper on YouTube that sang about making his breakfast… YUP, that won. Personally, I think the shop from the West Coast got robbed – at least their idea was original and had some marketing legs. But in the end, really? That’s all ya got? (Interested in who the players were? Check it out.)
I may be a bit negative on this topic because I feel my profession has been neutered by lackluster creative that’s let the advertisers down and I do think the bad certainly outweighs the good., But here’s a series that I think is simply brilliant. The ads are memorable, fun and I know who it is and what they are selling. I tip my hat to the Agency that created the DirectTV series… I wish I had! Watch it here.
What do you think? Am I being too hard on vanilla creative? What’s out there that you love? (Or if you prefer, hate?) Tell us in the comments below.
