Cannes does not fit this age of austerity

Today the London Business School reports marketers 'must focus on consumers looking for bargains in a new era of austerity'. For agencies, austerity is truly biting hard. Waves of redundancies have generated a miserable atmosphere, and inevitably damaged morale. And lots of very good people gone. It's not just been a case of 'dead wood'.

In these straitened times, any overt displays of opulent spending or lavish entertaining are rightly frowned upon as being out of tune with the times. This is Gordon Brown's Britain.

Except for one very visible case. In June, agency heads will be jetting off for a week of thinly disguised hedonism in the Cannes sun. I'm sorry, but it all feels very nineties, if not eighties, to me and entirely inappropriate for 2009.

Forget about the awards themselves, let's assume all the Direct winners will be very worthy and fine examples of creative innovation, even if hardly any (as was the case last year) are from the UK. And I'm sure the presentations will be insightful and well attended.

No, think of the image being projected by all those jolly important people sipping cocktails outside the Carlton and cracking open the Dom Perignon aboard a private yacht, while back home their staff await the dreaded call from HR. Think what hay the Sun or Mail would make of it. Then think of the employees who have lost their jobs to pay for those c.£2,000 tickets (plus flights and accommodation). I can tell you what those employees will be thinking about it.

I wonder how much 'insight into austerity' people will find on the beach at Cannes?

Forget Facebook, Twitter is already middle aged!

A couple of weeks back, our work expereince student wrote about how younger people were beginning to shun Facebook because their parents were now on it. Well, it would appear from some of the latest research from Comscore Media Matrix (link below) is that a similar thing is happening to Twitter with 45-54 year olds the highest indexing group, Not only is Stephen Fry one of the most popular twitterers, but it would appear he is one of the more typical users.

This could well be down to the fact Twitter is so simple. And it may also be due to younger people, as with Facebook, not actually wanting loads of people (especially parents) to know what they are doing. Besides, they already have their own, well established and more secure lines of communcation - via MSN and text.

Of course many of those in agencies - especially digital ones - won't get this because they understand neither teenagers nor anyone over 45. Agency staff are predominantly in their late twenties or early thirties, without any older children to use as a research base and scant understanding of how people slightly older than themselves behave. Teenagers are more traditional than they think and older people more different.

How much advertising is targeted at people over 45? Very little, How many brands are actually bought by people over 45? Most of them. Hopefully, when everything's settled down and the internet gurus have grown up a bit, we can all start using some of these new media outlets in an intelligent, effective way.

http://www.comscore.com/blog/2009/04/twitter_traffic_explodes.html

Should we listen to the Archbishop on advertising?

The Guardian reported last week that the newly-appointed Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, used his first interview since being named by the Pope to denounce plans to permit TV ads for condoms and birth control clinics.

So should we ban them? Should we stop the advertising of condoms designed to prevent pregnancy and STDs amongst teenagers? If not, should we do it in a more adult way? Should women be presented with the options available to them in the case of unwanted pregnancy? Or do the moral imperatives to prevent 'irresponsible behaviour' and abortion outweigh any other considerations?

Believe it or not, I welcome contributions such as this. There is always a danger we marketers become morally complacent, and occasionally a sense of outrage is required, as with the public reaction to Sir Fred Goodwin's arrogance.

But before the advertising community takes the Archbishop's lecture on sexual ethics too much to heart, in the very same week yet another priest, this time in Northumberland, was pleading guilty to 5 counts of indecently assaulting young boys under 16. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Archbishop's views, I can't help thinking of the saying about glass houses and throwing stones.

Is Facebook hitting middle age?

This week, I've handed my blog over to Casey Bird, a student of Advertising at the University of Gloucestershire. Having listened to Don Tapscott's stereotyping 'young people' last week, I found her piece very interesting....

Facebook started as a website connecting students, enabling them to keep in touch and chat. However, as a student, the appeal of using this website for what it was originally designed for, has worn off.

I am considering deleting it. Why? I feel robbed. It is officially 'uncool' to have Facebook.

My friends and I refuse to go on Facebook, as our mums and dads check up on what we're up to and my privacy is beginning to suffer. With Facebook nothing in life is kept private, from relationship status to favourite book.

Are middle aged people simply jumping on the bandwagon? I understand that they want to keep up with photos of their families and friends, but is Facebook the only way?

Facebook has lost the plot; it was designed for students communicating.  It should be used to arrange a drink with friends but has turned into a stalker's heaven. And now with new applications being added weekly, like Botox trying to look younger, it has lost its simplicity, which is what I loved about it.

Nobody wants to know that Louise Judson is relaxing after a hard day at work. I also don't want to see my Dad's drunken antics splashed over my Facebook on a Monday morning and vice versa! You might as well be out with your mum and dad on Friday night for all Facebook's worth.

Poking, super poking and throwing a sheep at someone is not cool, especially when your parents do it. The Facebook ship has truly sailed. Goodbye to my 600 virtual 'friends', I'm going to meet my 10 real friends in the pub.