By: Calvin Leung
Gary Prouk is known in the advertising world for having strong opinions. A former creative director at DDB Canada and co-founder of the Toronto office of Scali McCabe Sloves, he says international holding companies, such as WWP, Interpublic and Publicis, have ruined the industry. The problem, he says, is the people running these organizations “don’t report to Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy or Leo Burnett. They report to nameless, faceless people that they’re beholden to because they’re public companies.” The result is an obsession over the bottom line that has driven salaries down, downplayed the importance of quality work and seasoned employees, and made the industry no longer attractive to the brightest business minds, artists and writers, Prouk says. “Advertising just gets worse by the day and more and more embarrassing.”
Anyone care to agree or disagree?
4 Responses to “ The death of the advertising industry ”
If you think advertising is bad, try manufacturing. It too is no longer attractive to the brightest business minds.
By Peter Kreppenhofer on Jun 20, 2009
There is more of a shift to social media from traditional advertising. Companies need to realize this or face extinction.
By Jack Zufelt on Jun 22, 2009
Leo Burnett famously made a speech entitled “When to take my name off the door”. When the agency got too big to care about the quality of its work was one of those times.
The problem for agency holding companies is that they have become too big, too unwieldy, too Byzantine in structure to respond to the dramatic changes in the marketplace both in terms of media and consumer expectations. The whole concept of the ad agency has to be torn apart and completely restructured in order to meet the contemporary needs of clients.
Frankly, it is one of the few industries that is still flogging much the same product it was in the 1950’s. It is time for radical change.
By Simon Billing on Jul 16, 2009
If anyone knows the score, it’s Gary. But what about the role of the Client in this death? What makes good communication? That’s still the question – regardless of the medium.
By AdSlave on Jul 20, 2009