B|Net’s Jim Edwards noticed something of interest out of Adoi Magazine, which, in an interview with M&C Saatchi CEO Moray MacLennan, threw the guy a bunch of sweet, sweet meatball questions. That means they were easy, without depth and therefore not worth reading. Adoi is a Malaysian magazine that believes “everybody is creative.”
MacLennan’s response to said line of questioning: he talks about his childhood, his aspirations. Then he says he wants his competitors to do worse so he can do better! “On a more serious note,” he professes, “I think the public has fallen out of love with advertising over the years.” He goes on to talk about how advertising is an honorable industry and he wants the public to trust advertisers again etc. Amen, brother.
More! “[Consumers] have become slightly mistrusting of [advertising]. Unlike in the 80s when customers were easily sold, today they are much more sophisticated and do not buy into the media easily. Without being too pompous, I think advertising is quite an honorable way of earning a living. It is for the vital function of society. What advertising does is it promotes democracy, choice and better product at lower price because it creates competition. Thus I’d like the ad industry to advertise itself better so the public will trust us. We should stop telling them we are great and do something good. I am sure we are capable of being great communicators and earnings our consumers trust again.”
So, even in the face of quite possibly the easiest homerun article in all of advertising history, MacLennan manages to sound like a quarter operated cliché machine. Then again, who am I to judge. You all know much better.
More: “‘I’m Just Sayin” Covers Ads, And They’re Like, Totally Serious About it”