Jerry Seinfeld recently recently started a harsh, but funny, rant about advertising at the Clio awards by saying, “I love advertising because I love lying.”
He went on to say “I think spending your lives trying to dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless, low-quality, misrepresented items and services is an excellent use of your energy.”
It got me thinking about truth in advertising. Some advertisers may have earned their reputation as snake oil salesmen. But I think that consumers get the last laugh. The better that marketers get at breaking through the clutter, the better consumers get at ignoring any message that marketers send their way.
The real truth in advertising is that most advertising is ignored altogether.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed cartoon print. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)