One of the things I’ve always loved is making counter-arguments to people’s claims.
I don’t do it to be a shit, but because I hate how people in adland generalise so much.
Of course I appreciate we’re in the ‘numbers game’ so we tend to focus on insights/observations/situations that relate to the largest number of people as possible, however by doing that, we often ignore other issues/needs/values that have the potential to either change our view or drive more interesting work for huge proportions of the population.
The thing is, as much as we like to ‘package people’ into certain groups, the reality is we’re all different and we all have our little quirks – be them public, professional or private – and I suppose I get a bit annoyed when the things that really engage, intrigue and motivate people are ignored in favour of blandom, simply because that’s easier or more convenient to build/sell your argument on.
Yeah – I know – it’s not always easy to do this, but the subculture of society is everywhere and I guess I just wish our industry embraced it a bit more rather than either passing over it or tending to focus purely on the latest and greatest ‘yoof’ trends.
OK, I’m rambling – I know what I’m trying to say but I also know I am not saying it – but I guess the reason for this post is this:
Yep, it’s those weird dolls that have been advertised all around the World for as long as I can remember.
On a personal note, I’d rather pour acid all over my nether regions rather than own one of these – but the fact is, someone must be buying them because the company, Ashton Drake Galleries, has outlived companies that were globally labelled as ‘superstars’.
I have to say, the ‘Kate Middleton’ doll is especially disturbing … I don’t know why, given they make baby dolls which in reality are far freakier … but the way they describe her in minute detail gives me the chills, it’s as if they’re professional stalkers.
Anyway, despite being 40 years on this earth, I’ve never met someone who either owns one of these things or even likes one of these things – same with those fucking weird plates that also get flogged in the back of Sunday Newspaper magazines – and yet, as I said, someone must be buying them or they’d not be churning out topical shit like this in their droves.
The problem with adland is that too often, if they haven’t done it, they don’t believe it exists … which is why I will always grudgingly respect Andy for the time he asked a particularly dismissive and blinkered client if he’d ever used a prostitute.
Unsurprisingly the client went off and said no, to which Andy replied …
“That’s funny, because I’ve never met someone who has said they had and yet it’s the oldest industry alive”.
I guess what he was saying – albeit in the most offensive way possible – was that if we only take life on face value, we can miss out on uncovering things that could genuinely captivate people and that’s why a lot of research bothers me, because an industry developed to find out what’s really going on has seemingly got a number of practitioners who are only versed in repeating back what’s been said.
In a focus group.
Where the participants are promised money for talking.
Anyone else see the potential flaws with this picture?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive fan of research and sometimes you do end up finding out nothing has changed from what you already knew [which can also be incredibly valuable, especially if you have people that want to change things just for the sake of changing them] however one thing I think is always worth remembering when you are about to embark on a project – regardless how ‘established’ the audience insights are – is the old adage made famous by ancient female actress, Thora Hird …
“There’s nowt as queer as folk”.