Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

Why do I get the feeling that as so called professionals in the advertising business we are more and more ending up as the snake oil merchants and charlatans we have always been perceived to be? Perhaps today’s piece in the ad section of the New York Times finally tipped me over the edge… This whole travesty is a campaign via FCB for  Kraft “Easy Mac Cups” — individual servings of prepackaged, microwavable macaroni and cheese (can you imagine anything less desirable to eat?) To young adults in a… “So-Called”… edgy new campaign with a strong online presence. By creating a fictional college — the University of St. Arvin — that it says represents “every school and every ‘starvin’ student.’ This serves as the backdrop for the campaign, which begins in late March and whose humor will be reminiscent of “Animal House” and “American Pie.” Sorry guys, it’s a very poor rip-off of those films. And, rip offs always end up looking like rip-offs! You can go to a Kraft Web site at www.u-starvin.com for thigh slapping commercials and all kinds of other extremely feeble interactive stuff. All I know, is that when I was an art student back in London during the Middle Ages, all we cared about was the next pint, a packet of five Woodbines, and a fellow female student with a proclivity for a liberated life style… Macaroni and cheese came well down the desirability scale!

So, I'm walking down Madison Avenue, and this guy from FCB asks me if I'd like to earn a few bucks.. And before you know it... This is how I end up!