My prediction for the year’s biggest disruption in the a media world is the much-discussed, but yet-to-be realized demise of big budget broadcast TV. After a full decade of media fragmentation, the numbers just aren’t there to sustain this kind of artist-driven big-budget programming. This will likely lead to two things that will have a big impact. First, broadcast TV will continue to look even more like non-subscriber cable networks (think reality TV, sports and sensational news) than the premium cable networks where we currently go to watch “Homeland,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Breaking Bad.” Second, to get this kind of programming made and distributed, Hollywood will increasingly go directly to advertisers for funding and will rely more and more on digital platforms for distribution.

With big change comes big opportunities. My new year’s resolution is to have the foresight and courage to take advantage of them.

I love the color photos of stars we mostly have seen in black and white.

It humanizes them in a way that doesn’t undermine what made them stars in the first place. It also reminds us how much something as simple as seeing something in color can add so much. It’s worth remembering in this day and age when there are so many bells and whistles enabled by technology that lead us to overdoing things from a creative standpoint.

Photo credit: Harry Warnecke Studio for The Daily News/National Portrait Gallery

And he has finally done it here on Wrecking Ball. It took a long time, and an unsuspecting ally in Ron Aniello, but he did it. This album is a masterpiece IMO. And had Bruce taken such a daring leap way back when with Human Touch and Lucky Town he would’ve continued his long-sought age of relevance and even heightened it.

But maybe he wasn’t ready, or capable, back then. Maybe he was distracted with starting a young family and exploring the self rather than his craft. It hardly matters now. Because this is the perfect album for our time, perfectly crafted. It is not a political rant, it is a dark social commentary infused with glimpses of defiant hope. It is full of his most dangerous songs (it is not without reason to think that some poor displaced bastard could pick up a gun and thank the track “Jack of All Trades” for the inspiration, or a drunken protest might spin into a riot upon the playing of “Death to My Hometown”). It is also a gorgeous, provocative, modern-sounding record unlike anything he or anyone has ever done.

Count me as one of those who was somewhere between skeptical and terrified upon hearing early on the reports that Wrecking Ball was full of drum loops, samples and raps. Indeed, Bruce’s forays into such modernity have been painful at best (the Arthur Baker remixes, much of disc 4 on Tracks, even the remix of 57 Channels were obvious).

But this time, much to my surprise and sheer pleasure, he really did pull it off. As I said, I believe Wrecking Ball to be right up there with his best. In no order: Born to Run, Darkness, Tunnel of Love, Nebraska, Wrecking Ball.

Priceline Kills the Messenger Because Ads Worked Too Well

And yet the ensuing article was not one of biting irony or satire. It was an all-too-well crafted report on how the above statement can seem utterly logical (albeit twisted) in today’s advertising world.

Who knows what’s really behind Priceline’s decision to kill an inventive, distinct and effective campaign after 14 years? Perhaps William Shatner is losing miles off his fastball (I’m trying to be delicate here), and if that’s the case then it is understandable, while unfortunate, that Priceline® feels a need to move on.

But in recent articles covering the split between Mr. Shatner and Priceline, the company has gone to great lengths to dispel the notion that there is anything wrong with Mr. Shatner or the advertising. In fact, they seem to suggest that the campaign is too successful, rather than waning.

It appears their concern is that consumers associate the Shatner character (called The Negotiator) so much with one part of their business – negotiating for the lowest price – that not only are the equities of the campaign unable to effectively transfer to a newer message, fixed pricing, but they would serve as a detriment to this new message despite the long-lasting success The Negotiator has brought them to date.

I find this a little shocking.

Let’s face it. It’s hard to craft a memorable and ownable campaign like The Negotiator. Is it really safer to kill the character off than to try to rework the campaign? And that’s another thing. Priceline isn’t just trying something new. They took the drastic, and perhaps tasteless, approach of actually having Mr. Shatner’s character die in a fiery bus crash in the campaign’s final spot. (It makes you wonder if the creatives at Butler Shine were so miffed at the death of the campaign that they might be trying to send a message to their client.)

Which leads me to ask, Why is nothing ever a true success anymore? Why are we so busy looking for the faults, the weaknesses, the hairline fractures in even the most inspired and well-received work? It’s as though, because it is so hard to succeed in today’s marketplace, we now spend our whole time trying to avoid failing rather than working harder to achieve success. And the danger in this is that people lose motivation. They certainly lose their desire to take risks. As a creative the worst thing you can feel is that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That even if you make your numbers it’s not good enough. I think most responsible creatives understand the need for testing and optimization. But here we have a campaign that did what it was supposed to, and for that it must die (literally it seems).

My point is: I’m not positive The Negotiator would have been a powerful vehicle for Priceline’s new messaging.

But it damn sure deserved a shot.

As it turned out, it was apparently all just computer error, and much of my anger at the NFL was seemingly misplaced.

That said, the fact that the video had been taken down really led me to think about advertising in a way that I hadn’t since I first started working in the field.

What that one spot did on Sunday night was harness all the best that we as an industry have to offer. Admittedly, I am biased about the purpose great advertising can play in our society and culture because I work in the trade and do so proudly. But really, when you think about it, truly memorable ads do have immense impact. If they didn’t, why would the ads on the Super Bowl be as much discussed as the Big Game itself? Great advertising has always had a place alongside books, movies and music in shaping and defining our culture. And it is incumbent upon us to speak out on behalf of great advertising just as we would for those other forms of creativity.

Let’s face it. Whether you think the Chrysler ad is heartfelt and inspiring, or whether you think it is a piss-poor manipulation of patriotic fervor is irrelevant. It is a great ad because it has a point of view. It challenges us. It inspires thought and discourse. It’s also beautifully written, produced and performed.

So my outrage at this spot being pulled from YouTube was driven by my disappointment that the power of this ad would be lost in a corporate battle over copyright law. And that would have been a true shame. An ad like this deserves its proper run. It needs to be seen, heard and discussed, for better or for worse.

I know it’s just an ad.

But in the end, this ad is not about a car, a company or copyright usage. And it isn’t really even about politics.

It’s about us.

The people.

As I look back on my own career I realize now that what others may have perceived as my wasting of my youth while young, was actually the polar opposite.

A bit of context here. I graduated from Columbia into the last big recession in the late 80’s, early 90’s (nowhere near as bad as what you kids have to deal with, but similar for sure).  Most of my friends took any job they could find in NYC’s major industry’s (finance, law, government, journalism, publishing) or they went back to school.

Me? I took an acting internship at the Circle Repertory company. And for the next 4 years I would struggle to find myself across a variety of creative endeavors. I struggled as an actor, only to struggle as a director, only to have modest success as a screen and playwright, only to end up in advertising by happenstance.

And I wouldn’t trade one second of it.

The way I see it?  “I got mine.”  I lived hard, full, at times recklessly, but always with eyes wide open,, arms outstretched. Those years of experimentation broadened my tolerance for failure, expanded my thinking, taught me resiliency, weathered my skin.

And so I encourage any and all of you millennials, take advantage of this awful economy we have dumped on your lap. I am fortunate to work daily with many of you, and I am stunned by the talent and humanity of your generation. While the job you think you want today may not be available, don’t despair. Live for now. Embrace your youth.

It seems that a convergence of disparate factors – lack of training, the rise of conceptual advertising, the slow death of print, technology, etc. – has rendered the role of crisp, well-conceived copy to little more than afterthought.

I know I’m coming off like an old fart here, but check out the major award-winning campaigns of the last few years and you will see that while they are conceptually brilliant, they rely little on copy to either engage consumers or to entertain them. Copy is now the bread, not the meat, of the sandwich.

Think too, of arguably the greatest agency of this young millennium, CPB. Name one great tagline they created. Or a campaign that was driven by copy, a slogan, a turn of phrase. I doubt you can.

So what’s my point? Well this is a blog, so I don’t have to have a point. And so I don’t.  Except to say that as I read Dexter’s book and replay moments of Mamet’s film in my head, I am moved by their words as much as their ideas.

And I wonder if I should create a few ads like that.

I offer them up here not as something finite, but as the beginning of a creative conversation.

5 Principles Of VIA Creative Group

• Know what you are doing

Okay this sounds so basic, but it’s not. Most of the time, when things go awry it is because you don’t know what you are doing. Really, you don’t. You may think you are creating an ad to sell more Lojacks, but really what you are doing is creating an ad to convince people that car theft is legit and ubiquitous. Those are two very different things. Great creatives get that, and so they demand to KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING:

• Read and question the brief so that you clearly understand the strategy
• Be sure whether you are selling a product or service, or telling a brand story
• Take the time to experience what it is you are advertising as a consumer

So, one caveat on this. Don’t be a whiny fuck who questions everything just for the sake of questioning everything. The worst creatives hide behind blaming the strategy.  Make a habit of it and we will find you and call you out on it.

• Start with an Idea

So most agency creative departments are built around creating deliverables. Creating and executing world class deliverables is both hard and important. But it is not the driver of our agency or our department. At VIA, we believe the modern agency is one that is driven by ideas. Ideas are bigger than headlines, or images, or lay outs. Before you ever sit down at your desk and begin writing or laying something out, take the time to think in a way that is bigger and broader.

FIND THE IDEA.

• Think like the audience (I mean it).

This is where you have to be smarter and more disciplined than others to excel at VIA. It’s not enough to make something smart or funny based on your own taste. You must adopt the voice and perspective of your target audience to really engage them. In this way you must be more like an actor or a screenwriter than an advertising creative.

Moreover, knowing your audience doesn’t just lead to better, more relevant creative executions, it leads to better, richer ideas. Knowing what your audience, watches, reads, uses for a phone, listens to on the radio, for whom they tend to vote, other things they are likely to buy, their favorite movie stars, the car they drive, etc. can lead you to create far more compelling ideas. Ideas that will help the target audience to self-identify in a time when we are all segmented into groups so narrowly defined, that our predessors would shutter to think of it.

Which leads to the next principle…

• Find Velocity

It’s never been harder for an advertiser to create social and cultural relevance. This is the pinnacle of our craft. And to do so today, I believe we should try to marry our work to real behaviors, and in the proper instance, cultural phenomena The more your work is built around existing behaviors, rituals and sentiments the more powerful it will be. By tapping into what is happening as a result of consumer behavior (think Timberlands in inner cities) the more velocity you will create in moving an audience to embrace and to act.

• Make them want it

I say this to clients all the time: You want your advertising to be like the last seven measures of a great song that you heard on the radio in 1985. You were just praying that the DJ would tell you the name of the song or the artist, cuz you loved that song and you wanted to have it.

Today, the consumer can find and get anything.

We should strive to create work that instills that sense of longing.  Our work should motivate people to Google, Shazaam, Blog Search, whatever it is we create. Because they can, and they will. And they will thank us for providing such covetable creative work. Which in turn can lead into a discourse on behalf of the clients and the brands we represent. This is something that will become ever more revalent  as the Ipad/Tablet/Smart Phone markets continue to explode.

Give them content they “HAVE TO/ WANT  TO” find and see, and you win.

20 THINGS TO DO, AND NOT TO DO

• Do not fight for things that don’t matter.
• Do fight hard for things that do.
• Do not create advertising that your client can anticipate or predict
• Do use language that is unique, and provokes curiosity
• Do not show Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Einstein, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Steven Hawking, Joe Namath, Sir Edmund Hilary, Reagan, the guy from Tiananmen square facing the tanks, Kennedy, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Tony Hawk, Shawn White, or Lance Armstrong in any of your concepts or, god forbid, in your ads
• Do not portray seniors on surfboards or in a surfing environment.
• Do not show a dog (particularly a golden retriever or any colored lab) jumping off a dock.
• Do make music an important part of your creative product (make them want it!)
• Do anticipate client issues with your concept, your comp, your presentation.
• Do not do unclear, muddled “drive-thru” humor.
• Do not show a patient lying on the couch at a psychiatrist.
• Do make sure to enhance recall of the brand or product not just the creative
• Do not have more than 10 words on a billboard
• Do not write 37 second spots when a 30 is what’s called for.
• Do not assume it can be fixed in post, or that it should be
• Do keep on top of all the latest trends in media
• Do not repeat all the latest creative trends (Old Spice Guy, weird Skittles vibe, Gap stop motion. Apple Indie rock)
• Do not rely heavily on puns
• Do make it simple. Always find a way to make it simpler. Don’t dumb it down. Make it simple.
• Don’t fall in love with your own ideas. Fall in love with great ideas.

Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? OK, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions. —Excerpted from Douglas Bowman’s “Goodbye Google”

I just read the entire article from which the above quote was excised. Perhaps it is just the regular bitch and snuff of another disgruntled employee who left Google.

Regardless, it is a thoughtfully written piece that highlights how complete adherence to data-driven decisions regarding “creativity” renders the idea of such a term useless.

Look, we are all big boys and girls now. We live in an age of data, testing and an abundance of scrutiny and opinion. In many ways, this is helpful and positive and allows us to keep our creative impulses in line with what consumers will want and embrace.

That said, the pendulum has clearly swung too far. At some point, where data dictates the outcome, we destroy true creativity. When we are asking the audience to decide each decision in the creative process – from points of copy to shades of blue – we are no longer being creative.

Which is all well and good. Perhaps creativity is becoming more irrelevant and we should just relinquish our position to a commodity/manufacturing-type status.

Personally, I don’t believe that. I still believe that it is up to us as advertisers and marketers to create new ideas that will inspire, educate and lead our customers to new thinking and consideration. Testing and data can help us but should never preclude the approach of taking the “road not taken.”

A completely data-driven approach to creative is a fallacy in and of itself. It’s just science, without the art. It’s like showing Ross Perot’s charts, without Ross Perot. Who wants that?

How many songs we’ve heard, paintings we’ve seen, movies and we’ve watched that defied the obvious yet dictated a broader understanding of our culture, and made us connect with one another in a way that is more meaningful.

I submit that data and testing should provide insight that allows us to push the boundaries. In today’s Internet age, if advertisers create work that creates meaning, the audience will go out and pursue it, spend time with it and, if it’s really good, pass it along.

I always say to my creative teams, you should create work that is like that song you heard the last 10 measures of on the radio that just totally caught you, and you’re holding on praying that the DJ will tell you the name of the song or the band so you can go out and find it and get it.

Cuz if you do that with your advertising today, the consumer will do just that. Data be damned.