A nebulous promise, but nonetheless I was set on completing the task no matter how bad this film looked.

In this day and age, who doesn’t want extra miles?

Upon completion of this promotion, I quickly shot off an email to my friend Jennifer thanking her for sending the email my way and lastly commenting on how terrible the ad was.  She agreed.

But was it terrible?

The thought brought me back to  a blog post from Jeff Goodby. As one of the many who “virtually” attended Cannes this year through the blogs and pictures of those who went, I have to say – my favorite Cannes yet. Mr.  Goodby’s post on WE ARE BECOMING IRRELEVANT AWARD CHASERS really stuck in my head.  Read this blog. To paraphrase, he bravely says, that many of the winners at Cannes are ads or campaigns that live only in obscurity to the population at large. Does that make it good advertising?  A quote:

“We’ve created a system that rewards work that is increasingly unknown to anyone outside the business. We have become connoisseurs of esoterica. And in the process, we’re becoming more about us, and less about changing the world.”

This train of thought sent me hunting for an email a friend and colleague who holds a very high post at a global Agency sent me:
“Check out this video the Agency just finished, it is the first Music Video for the Agency. It made #16 on Ad Critic.”

The video was great, and I applaud an Agency for branching out to new avenues of work and also for using the company’s creative talents to help Bands and Artists, but it was the Ad Critic comment that got me. Why does Ad Critic mean so much to our industry? What is more important to the overall success of  this music video; it’s rank on Ad Critic or aiming for critical mass on You Tube hits?

This was a great example of exactly what Jeff Goodby had so boldly stated. Advertising is defined (by Webster’s Dictionary) as: the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements. Then shouldn’t the success of an ad be judged on how many people it reached rather then industry accolades?

Let’s go back to the American Airlines online Ad. Very average visually, but it worked. Jennifer watched it, I watched it and my mom watched it. Mission accomplished.  By definition this was a GREAT ad, regardless of my aversion to the visuals.

“Our video made #16 on Ad Critic.” “How?” your client asked.
“We submitted it to Ad Critic and a bunch of other Ad people voted it forward.

(SFX – screeching of brakes)………….. lets try this again.

“Our video got over ONE MILLION hits on You Tube in the first week.” “How?” your client asked.
“We tapped into a whole new community for the Band online through an online viral strategy.”

I love great creative and a well-produced ad as much as anyone in our business, but more than that I have come to appreciate an ad that works. Mr. Goodby, I’m with you.