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

I used to do a lot of technology advertising, everyone from IBM, to Apple, to Intel, you name it. I still do some, but mostly direct with clients, rather than with their agencies. So I continue to get comp subscriptions to all the technolgy trade books and the one thing that amazes me is the fact that ninety percent of the ads running today are exectly the same as the ads running twenty years ago. Unlike much consumer advertising, the stuff put out by agencies handling IT accounts relies on the same visual cliches, race cars for speed, lego blocks for scaleability, baby's lifting barbells for strength, or my favorite, what I call "IT people with constipation." These are the head shots of very, very serious people. The accompanying copy is usually banal, boring and full of "Geek Speak" words and phrases that are absolutely meaningless, such as "Best of breed" and "Bleeding edge," even though I'm sure the client fells they "Resonate" with the reader. Of course it could be that as people churn, at both the client and the agency, they actually think they're doing something new. And as we all know in this business, there isn't really anything new. It's all been done before, and very often, it's been done better.

Welcome to the wonderfull world of IT advertising!