IF WE LOSE THE ART IN WHAT WE DO…

SHA. Blog: The advertising industry has changed

According to Forbes, the advertising industry has changed more in the last few years than it has over the last few decades. Everyone agrees and everyone sees the threats and the opportunities. Yet the same old nonsense gets posted online for our attention on a daily basis. These ‘creations’ have no humour, no call to action, there is no art. 

What is art?

If art is the process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect, why do we shy away from the art so much during the creation of advertising? Now, I’m not talking about the arty 30 second TVC. It’s easy for a decent creative mind, a talented director and a decent production house to create something artistic, rather I allude to the proliferation of lowest common denominator communication we see every day online.

If we do lose the art in what we do, then we lose everything.

We seem to be dumbing everything down and it’s a dangerous development because if we do lose the art in what we do then we lose everything. It’s the art that makes this industry special, it’s the polish that affords us our very existence. The creation and defence of our art drives us to succeed, whether it be the art of effective commercial creative, the art of selling, it’s all about the art of standing out. Let’s stop producing page turners in the press, that’s the job of a good author not an ad man. Steve Henry in his latest blog asks: how seriously does advertising take its core resource of creative talent? We have to ask ourselves the same question and quickly.

The creation and defence of our art drives us to succeed, whether it be the art of effective commercial creative, the art of selling, it’s all about the art of standing out

Without a core group of clever creatives producing great work consistently we will continue to tread water while agencies unfamiliar with our territory and our historic battles with quality will come in and snap up all the good work with creative solutions developed elsewhere. Imagine Amazon opening up on Northumberland Street and cleaning up, it couldn’t happen could it? Cost, geography etc? But it is; it’s happening right now in America.

SHA is a strategic advertising agency, creating brand strategy, advertising, design for print and content for web and social. If you want to know more, get in touch with nigelh@sha-agency.com or visit our contacts page.

The opinions in this article are that of the author alone and in no way, reflect the opinions or viewpoint of the agency. Unless of course we happen to agree with those opinions completely, in which case they might, but otherwise they don’t.