ISSUE 246 : Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Old habits die hard. To break bad habits you need to replace them with good habits. Some have called this weekly rantfest a 12 step program for addiction to Madison Avenue thinking. I know it helps me to go over old issues of MadisonAveNew.com to remember why I started the process of reinventing advertising. I did it because it was time. Advertising needs a fresh look. Now a lot of people are challenging the old “advertising as usual” way of thinking.

Obviously, the reinvention of advertising and the rethinking of Madison Avenue’s top-down mentality is more than a whim. Kicking Madison Avenue habits is accomplished against impossible odds. All of us are playing for inconceivable stakes: the sustainability of advertising itself as a viable business proposition.

To break with tradition you have to stand for something. NeoAdvertising sets forth the premise that there are no customers, there are no consumers there are only members of the “connected audience.” This is a complete break from the “push” oriented, top-down thinking that still dominates Madison Avenue's traditional advertising agency networks.

To escape from that out-moded business reality to the advertising-immune connected audience reality takes a significant leap of logic. I have had to stop just short of bravado in touting the need to “reinvent advertising” just to get there. Seth Godin tells us, “The problem with bravado is that it forces you to suspend reality when making your plan. Optimism is self-fulfilling, bravado can be toxic.” NeoAdvertising requires the acceptance of a new reality. One that can no longer be suspended or denied.

So with all due optimism I am taking this opportunity to encourage others to join with me in this reinvention process. I cheer their efforts to escape the Madison Avenue thinking that presupposes a latent product-interested world of “consumers” out there, “customers” who just can’t wait for the latest new and improved product. "You go, girls!," I say. Don’t believe the hype. You can reinvent advertising just by the way you question conventional wankerism or status quo myopia. Questions like “But what if nobody gives a shit?” can start entire product teams down the road to reinventing advertising.

Reinventing advertising is about asking “What if?”

What if we don’t follow the brief, but talk to the trade?

What if we don’t put it all on network, but take some and create a 12 minute webisodic or a permanent commitment to Facebook?

What if we don’t go to an agency? What if we go to the guys who did…?

What if the “flyover states” shot us down? What if nobody watched, read or listened?

What if advertising was only for people who didn’t know any better -- all .02% of them?

But mainly kicking the Madison Avenue Habbit is about the marathon path to the new, and why there is no finish line. Which, btw is the only thing that matters.