:: adgrunite :: Lubars and AdClub NYC

+ The New York Metro interviews David Lubars, the new CD at BBDO.

Lubars sometimes refers to the audience as “victims” of advertising. If the problem with advertising, the old advertising, the advertising that played to a captive audience, is that it shills, that it sells too hard, in David Lubars’s world the way to get past consumer indifference is to stop selling. It is not to make advertising but to make entertainment that happens to sell stuff. “The audience is very sophisticated,” he says. “They like marketing, and they’re willing to play the game. But they’re willing to play the game right. ‘Truth. Don’t bullshit me.’ ”

Lubars brings up some good points. And elsewhere in the article so does Alex Bogusky.

Says Alex Bogusky, CPB’s creative director: “I don’t mind looking like we’re selling something. I just want to make sure everyone’s in on the joke. Everyone is having fun with it. The consumer is there, and they know we’re trying to sell a Mini. Why else would we be there, y’know? And we know that they know.”

It's not about tricking consumers into watching your ad. It's not about slipping in the shill as Lubars puts it. It's about finding a way to connect to them, through entertainment of some kind, which also demonstrates the way in which the product or service benefits them- whether it be "makes life easier" or "you'll enjoy it". There's something about the lack of honest factor in a lot of advertisements that just ring false. McDonalds really cares about the quality of food you ingest? Since when? Since they started getting sued. Sometimes it seems that marketers, clients and other ad folk forget to remember that what their are creating won't be interesting to anyone but themselves, and/or that they are creating for people who don't really care all that much about their product.

There's also the philosophy that we have to constantly tell people "why" we're advertising something. If you're doing an advert, most likely you have something to say. If you don't you shouldn't be running an ad. It's one of the things that drives me bonkers in advertising. When you're not talking about something interesting, then people won't care, and that is just wasting money. So why bother? Even branding advertisements have something to say. And I think that's one of the points a lot of advertisers miss. Consumers know that if they are viewing, reading or listening to an advert, you are trying to sell them something or at least tell them something. You wouldn't spend the time and money to put an advert in a newspaper for no reason. Or on TV or anywhere else. So, there's no need to bash consumers over the head with the "Hey you, we're telling you something."(hat tip Dab.)

+ NYC AdClub launches a new campaign. (hat tip Dab.)