IBM report: The Advertising Armageddon?

I read with interest the recent report “The End of Advertising as We Know It” issued by IBM which forecasts “greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next five years than occurred in the previous 50.”. The report can be view here.

Whoa. Very doomsday-like with IBM predicting drastic upheavals in the advertising industry. I wouldn’t exactly call it the end of advertising. This is the beginning of a critical shift that will cause traditional advertising to evolve, NOT go kaput. We are beginning to glimpse the changes that are to come: Google’s OpenSocial and Facebook’s SocialAds, which delivers personalised advertising content based on users’ interests.

Remember the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report? There were scenes that showed him running through a metro train and a shopping mall in the midst of his escapade from the baddies. Very tiny machines scanned his retina and flashed personalised ad contents based on his purchasing history, interests etc.

When I saw that, it was all very wow and futuristic. In probably 10-15 years time, we may not be too far off from that future.

Live Earth – Hope or Hype

The Live Earth website states “Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.”

When you read the above, or any article on global warming for that matter, it is an assumption that the climate is undergoing some sort of immediate crisis. We are shown data after data suggesting how increasing CO2 levels has raised the earth’s temperature which in turned is causing the entire North Pole/South Pole glaciers to melt leading to rising sea levels. All these changes in the earth’s atmosphere is also causing destructive weather elements such as widespread flooding, hurricanes and the like. I too, believed that our planet was doomed for destruction by man’s greedy exploitation of the earth’s natural resources and wanton disregard for the environment.

Many years ago, I read Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear. It changed my perception of the reality of global warming. Although the novel is a work of fiction, Crichton based much of the information in his book on real, actual scientific research and data. The conclusion? What we’re experiencing now are normal fluctuations in the earth’s atmosphere; throughout earth’s history there are periods of warming and cooling. All these has got nothing do with human negligence but rather a result of natural solar activity.

Alarmists, perhaps fueled by political agenda, has turned global warming into a myth and a cause to be championed for. How interesting to note that the organiser of the Live Earth campaign, the Alliance for Climate Protection, was founded by none other than Al Gore. In the weeks leading up to the concerts, the local media too jumped onto the bandwagon. Various b-list celebrities appeared on commercials cooing “We are not exaggerating” while pretending to tear their hair/look serious/act cute. I wonder exactly how many of them actually did any kind of research about global warming first?

Well the concerts are over, the crowds dispersed and the superstars jetted back to their multimillion dollar homes. Different reports have already come in and the results aren’t exactly very pretty. Live Earth generated about 74,500 tonnes of CO2 and would require the planting of 100,000 trees to offset the greenhouse effect of the concerts. Not to mention the HUGE amount of fuel and energy wasted, I mean utilised, to stage the concerts.

Having said all that, I’m all for caring for the environment because I firmly believe we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of our planet. But we need to learn to discern myth from fact, especially so when agendas are propogated so often through the media. More on that in the next post.

For further reading, here is an excellent article on the whole Live Earth shebang written by a 19 year-old political science student from Canada.

Google Print Ads

The word’s been out for some time already but search engine giant Google has officially launched Google Print Ads, which is basically a version of its Google Adwords incarnated in print form.

It is interesting to note how Google is extending its reach beyond that of the internet sphere and muscling in on territories traditionally dominated by advertising agencies and other media companies. I can imagine them peeing in their pants now. Should they be worried at all? What’s to stop Google from moving on to the radio and television mediums? The Google empire is growing every year and they are on the prowl for other lucrative channels.

Personally I find the idea a little disturbing. Imagine seeing Google EVERYWHERE you turn… Google Radio Ads, Google Television Ads, Google Bus Ads, Google Billboards, Google YellowPages. It’s a freaking scary thought.

No doubt Google may be trying to grab a slice of the pie, but its mainstay and strongest influence is still the internet medium. At this point, it may be too early to tell whether Google Print Ads will create any impact on the media landscape.

Whatever and Anything

Two of the most oft-used words in our modern lexicon have become the polestar of a major advertising blitz for two beverage products called, you’ve guessed it, Whatever and Anything. If you’ve never heard of this before, you probably just came down from Mt Kusu, in which case you’d be better off climbing back up again.

The (very successful) teasers and ad campaign generated lots of interest and buzz and personally, the print ads never fail to illicit a chuckle. Whether the actual products lives up to the hype is another thing. From what I’ve heard so far, feedback hasn’t always been positive. Just last night, I tried a can of Whatever, and it turned out to chrysanthemum tea laced with so much sugar they should stick a diabetic warning on the can.

I attended a company-sponsored course last week, and the trainer just so happened to mention that the products was a result of focus groups replying “Anything” or “Whatever” when asked what were their favourite drinks. (I checked the product website, and the creators claimed they stumbled upon the idea themselves.)

First we had the baby boomers, followed by Generations X, Y and Z. Now apparently we have the Whatever-and-Anything Generation. Typical teenspeak for you:

“What shall we have for dinner?” – “Anything.”
“Which way is better? X or Y?” – “Whatever.”
“Which sauce would you like to have? Mayo or thousand island?” – “Anything lor.”
“He/She is soooo cute!” – “Whatever!”

Some of us non-teens aka adults are guilty of the above as well. Nothing wrong with that of course, but unless you want to be accused of being indifferent and apathetic, then you better speak up. Wait, Singaporeans ARE indifferent and apathetic. That probably explains why we are the first ones to invent beverages with innovative names like Whatever and Anything.