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

I know I’ve got a bit obsessed with the auto biz just recently, but you have to blame yesterday’s New York Times for getting me back on that particular subject. There was a piece in the business section about General Motors’s announcement of it’s 2007 line up, and guess what? In spite of surging gas prices, pride of place was given over to full-size pickups and giant SUV’s. GM’s CEO had the unmatched stupidity to go on record as saying, “These will be the most important part of our North American turnaround plan!” I sometimes wonder what planet these people live on. On a final note, concerning Chairman Dieter Zetsche, the Dr. Strangelove of Daimler Chrysler, featured in BBDO’s terrible TV campaign, I was reminded of David Ogilvy's classic dictum: If the client moans and sighs, make his logo twice the size. If again he proves refractory, use a picture of the factory. Only in the gravest cases should you show the clients' faces. Don't think I could have put it better myself!

After presenting the 60th layout, the loudest noise in the conference room was the ticking of the account execs brain!