Why geeks are bigger wankers than Ad people!
I already posted on this on MadScam, my UK blog. But I think it’s important, and for all you wankers that don’t read ALL my blogs, I’ll post it here… Only this version has all the swearing in it. There’s an interesting short video on Business 2.0’s web site. Shot in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s a bunch of new media tech geeks talking through their arses about CGC and other dumb themes.
What pisses me off about the people in the video... And I've worked with a ton of them in both the US and Europe... Is that they live in their own fucking world. They speak their own geeky language. These are the wankers who thought they knew all about fashion, so they brought you Boo.com, or selling dog food, so you got Pets.com, or groceries, so you got WebVan. All of which imploded in the dot.com fuck up of the late nineties… Leaving a lot of BDA’s holding the bag for millions.
The geeks are as divorced from reality as many of the people in advertising. But as I said at this weeks PSFK Conference, everyone is an expert at three things. Driving a car, making love and creating advertising. Fortunately, I'm the only person in the world who can do all three at the same time. (If you need references… It’s all in MadScam, so buy it!) CGC will pass, as all things do... Yes, the agency business is screwed... But a bunch of Silicon Valley geeks don't have the answer because they have no idea about content. And at the end of the day it's all about content. There will always be new methods of delivery.
But as Howard Gossage once said… “People don’t read advertising; they read what they’re interested in.” And I’m not really interested in watching a video an acne encrusted teenager jerking off in his bedroom.
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OK... So some geeks are acceptable!
main difference between geeks and ad ho's:
geeks salivate over bandwidth & bit speed
ad ho's salivate over the Porsche account
still a bunch of white guys in a room talking to themselves about how "down with it" they are. i think both need to be really honest with themselves (and everyone else)...it's a job, bettter than some, worse than others...
oh yeah, as for jan Leth? he's a nice guy trying to do a hard job, coming in from the cold, as it were... into an already established "old boys club" and having more responsibility thrust on him isn't easy. i know him so maybe i'm biased, but i do think he's not the problem.
Posted by: marinobean | March 10, 2007 at 11:40 AM
Leth isn't the PROBLEM Marino, he's just a symptom of why this place is blowing up in our faces. He's an minor league talent who's hired people who are also minor league talents. IBM where he's spent most of his time, should be a jewel account, with the best and brightest running and staffing it. Instead he put a bunch of has-beens or never-beens in charge and on staff, people who wouldn't even get hired at Grey and here they are running one of the industries premiere accounts. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he's just another one of the wtf? decesions they keep making around here. I mean dude last week someone told me that he thoight Martin Sorell stood to make a lot of money if O&M went down. Conspiracy theories. That's where we're at now.
Posted by: 8th floor | March 11, 2007 at 12:28 PM
Geeks and AdHos both suffer from the same hubris: they create things that appeal to people just like them. Hence the award books are filled with ads for products that appeal to hip 30something males in a tone that speaks to them as well. Hence the success of places like Kaplan-Thaler, who go after the huge swath of the market that isn't hip and 30something.
Ditto techies, who are (if possible) even more insular in their culture, what with the Secret Language of Anagrams and all.
As for Ogilvy, not going to jump into that one other than to note that as creatives from the two sibling agencies (Ogilvy & OgilvyOne) are being moved (physically) onto the same floors, all the old animosities seem to be coming to the forefront.
Posted by: Tangerine Toad | March 11, 2007 at 03:55 PM
Ouch...
Can't say too much on this as I will disclose my sources... But it does seem as if the crew are fighting over the lifeboats, while the passengers are left to re-arrange the deckchairs. As for the Poisoned Dwarf making money if O&M tanks... I can't buy that, even if it was true... It's a matter of pride. The little fucker could never leave his basement if the flagship of the WPP empire went down. Besides which, David would come back from the grave and kill him!
Cheers/George
Posted by: George Parker | March 11, 2007 at 05:16 PM
8th floor: let me ask you this, would you turn down the opportunities offered to jan? neither would i,but i agree the ones that hand out the offers are culprits. but how many of the top brass anywhere would you stand with, shoulder to shoulder, and feel they were looking out for you and hearing what you say? we all have agendas, theirs are much larger and much more self centered.
toad: we agree on that, people make things for people like them, be they geek or ad ho or republican...
george: having just signed back on the HMS O&M, i'm in no hurry to leave, i did my bit freelancing for a couple of years and now i need the stability and chance to work on the larger clients and feel some sort of productive engine around me. at the end of the day, O&M made me a better offer and, quite frankly, the works really the same most everywhere you go.
sometimes you get the chance to fly, most times not. thank you Roger Waters for that (from "the wall")
Posted by: marinobean | March 11, 2007 at 06:40 PM
Marino: Leth's just there bro. Can't blame him at all for his good luck. But up here we're all thinking, okay you just hired Mike Lescarbeau- haven't heard from him in 10 years, but he was a superstar, so good move. So if you do that, why put some dude with zero creative chops like Leth in charge of the 5th floor? Why not find an interactive creative superstar? Someone who good people are going to want to work for.
Your man George is right, people are heading for the lifeboats.
Posted by: 8th floor | March 11, 2007 at 07:29 PM
Guys
That's why I want a "Humping Dog Memory Stick." It makes as much sense as working in an agency. Come to think of it, it makes more.
Cheers/George
Posted by: George Parker | March 12, 2007 at 04:53 PM
if you liked that, check this out:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/more-possibly-fake-google-phone-rumors-243556.php
Posted by: marinobean | March 13, 2007 at 05:02 AM
sorry, wrong link sent, i meant to send this one:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/smart-coaster-alerts-bartender-of-empty-drink-243535.php
george, you'll love it!
Posted by: marinobean | March 13, 2007 at 10:18 AM