Coincidental with my recent BrandRepublic piece of the 22nd, talking about the tenth anniversary of David Ogilvy’s death, I have also been doing a series of posts on my US blog, AdScam, about an upcoming number of layoffs at Ogilvy’s New York Office which are expected to happen in the next week or so. Both pieces have drawn numerous comments, some of which are particular to Ogilvy’s current unfortunate condition, but many of which are about the parlous state of agencies in general at the moment.
As I have written about regularly in articles, blogs and books, I believe we are at a watershed moment in the advertising business. Yes, the advent of “New Media” is a major contributing factor, but it is not something we haven’t gone through before and learned to cope with. No, the true seismic change that has taken place in the business over the last thirty years is what I call its “Conglomeration.” Meaning that every major agency (With the single exception of W+K) belongs to one of the four major holding groups. All are publicly traded, and all are about making the quarterly numbers.
But this is becoming more difficult as clients become increasingly aware that “New Media” now offers them less expensive ways to communicate with consumers, and better yet, they don’t have to pay big fees to their traditional agencies to achieve this. Perhaps the most ominous cloud on the horizon for BDA’s (Big Dumb Agencies, as I love to call them) is the news last week that Wal-Mart is asking its suppliers to kick in as much a third of their ad budgets to Wal-Mart’s own ad program. In the case of P&G, this would be well over $1 billion dollars. Which in turn means P&G’s ad agencies are about to lose a third of their billings and fees. And as you know, what Wal-Mart wants, Wal-Mart gets, particularly if you want them to continue stocking your brand!
Not a good time to be a BDA.
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One of the things you have to accept about the Internet in general, and the blogosphere in particular, is that you should only believe about fifty percent of what you read. Traditional newspapers and magazines – Even those aimed at the brain dead people who can’t get enough show biz gossip, pop culture, bullshit – Still employ bone fide journalists and fact checkers. Such restrictions rarely apply on-line.
However, no such rules or regulations restrain the vast majority of Internet publishers. Even Wikipedia, which many people consider to be a digital version of something as reliable as the Encyclopedia Britannica, can be altered and tampered with, as I write about in The Hidden Persuaders, in the chapter on drug advertising.
So, I was not surprised to read in Wired on-line, a piece titled… “Standing Room Only: Chinese Airline Plans Seatless Flights.” The article talks about how Spring Airlines will now be offering “standing room only” flights in future. The funny thing is I had also written about this on AdScam a few days ago. But the airline referenced was Ryanair, the notoriously cheap Irish outfit, and the story had originally run on CNBC.
So, the question is… Are either of these stories true? Or are they merely a figment of someone's imagination that gets picked up and amplified as it screeches and ricochets from blog to blog. But who knows, perhaps there is a grain of truth there, God knows, these days the airlines will do anything to squeeze an extra penny out of your “Travel experience.” What’s next, BA offering “wing seats?”
So, here I am in the USA on the fourth of July. And even though I’ve lived here for a great many years, for a long, long time, I saw no need to become a citizen. I finally gave in five years ago and became a US national… For two reasons. First, my wife discovered that if I kicked the bucket, my estate would pay more in taxes if I was not a US national…
What she doesn’t realize is that I have already blown all my money on sex, drugs, rock & roll. But by the time she realizes that… I will no longer be around. Ha, fucking Ha… Now don’t get me wrong here, she won’t be left short… But “Toy Boys” are out. The second reason was so I could vote for anyone with half a brain other that George W. Bush for a second term… A lot of fucking good that did me!!! Anyway, the point of this particular rant is… It’s the two hundred and seventy first birthday of George III… Ha, and all Americans think it is Independence Day.
Yeah, the one that commemorates the date the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776… Sorry guys, you are wrong… It was actually signed on August 2nd, 1776. Which shows how much the ex-colonials know about this ***. Mind you, back then they didn’t have Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and all the other crap people need these days to know what fucking day of the week it is.
George Washington had the right idea though, every Fourth of July, he gave the troops a double ration of rum. No wonder he became known as the Father of the Nation! Double ration of Boddingtons for me. Cheers/George
George Parker
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