March 29, 2005

The Persuaders Forum

Attended a great Cencom forum on the people and forces shaping the images of marketing culture. The panel was moderated by Douglas Rushkoff whose PBS Frontline special, "The Persuaders" can be seen here.

Panelists
Mark Crispin Miller - NYU Professor of Media Studies, Media Critic
Keith Reinhard - Chairman, DDB Worldwide
Barbara Lippert - Advertising Critic, Adweek

Some Key Points:

Interactive TV How much do consumers want TV to evolve from a passive medium into an interactive, exploratory, choice based one as it relates to advertising? Do people want to explore the features of the new Mercedes by clicking around an interactive ad?

Political Marketing
Reinhard related a conversation he had with Democratic strategist Bob Shrum. He asked Shrum how Shrum thought people got most of their information. Shrum said from People magazine and Entertainment Tonight. Miller pointed out that this represents a crisis for democracy...when those in power feel that "the people" are just a bunch of idiots, fascism is a more apt description than democracy.

Culturejamming
Miller declared the death of the effectiveness of culturejamming as an effective way to confront marketing clutter and messaging. He is right, advertisers love the attention and it doesn't really hurt them. Miller encouraged more lobbying and hard-hitting tactics to spur change.

Future of Ad Industry
Reinhard, a CEO of a major ad agency. had a fascinating answer to a question of the death of advertising due to TIVO zapping. He said, if the ad world can't find a way to deliver value to the people, and the ads get zapped away, the ad business is irrelevant and should go out of business. Posted by Neil at March 29, 2005 01:39 PM | TrackBack
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