GIMME A REASON WHY: BRIAN HOOD?

Some people have asked me why on earth I stick around the advertising and communiction biz when I oppose most of what it does and resembles while having so little influence on it as a whole. Isn’t it a bit like David against Goliath? Won’t the enemy retain the upper hand and crush any form of resistance with a blink of the eye, just like that? Isn’t this like Sisyphos rolling a rock up a steep hill only for it to roll all the way back down again once reaching the summit?

I have my reasons. The first reason is the most blatant one: to make a living. There are others though.

When I absolved my first freelance stint back in ’99 I was just looking for a job that would ensure me a little more income than I was making as a part time cleaner. The longer I nourished myself on the money and jobs available however, the more insights I obtained as to what the industry was doing and exactly how much cash was at its disposal. And I was deeply shocked when I realized that millions and more milions were being burnt for so little effect. Where else I ask you can so much money be wasted without anybody ever having to justify their shortcomings?

Fairly soon I could make out two opposing parties: the ones wanting to be aknowledged and willing to pay almost any price to achieve that goal versus the others becoming increasingly immune towards their calls. It made me sick just to think what could be if the money available could be diverted into different channels.

Alas, I also realized almost immediately that for all my frustration the industry would never care a damn about me or my opinions. As an individual, I was never going to appear on a radar only capable of tracking target groups. My inferiority stifled me for a while. I was small, weak, invisible, just like a sand corn in a desert and would probably never be heard by the presumably superior power of the advertising world. How initiate change? A revolution, a declaration of war on the industry promised no noticeable results.

So I chose to remain below the radar. The solution for me came in the form of counterintelligence strategies and subversive techniques. If you don’t have the weaponry to launch a successful assault on the enemy, then join up, become part of the “dark side of the force” and counteract from within. So I set off to learn the terms, the jargon, the theories, the ways of marketing and – remaining independent as a freelancer – dug into the business, slowly climbing up the hierarchies and gaining influence on strategies and activities, both in the sense of what brands were doing (conception) and how much they were investing in ideas I had helped develop (budgeting).

Basically, the situation is quite simple: even if advertising fails to achieve, the industry will continue spending. It’s a fact. I can turn my back on them, it won’t change a thing. The more the so called consumer ignores the advertiser, the more it will invest to develop new techniques of getting to us. And seeing no brand in the commercial world will ever voluntarily capitulate, the only short term way of change is getting inside the biz, infiltrating it, diluting and diffusing the system with input, entering dialogues instead of battles, discussing, inspiring, giving insights and trying to motivate new ideas, new ways and promoting people’s interests to an utmost extent. Budgets will be spent anyway, to why not try to acquire as large a share as we can, to finance better ideas, sustainable, sensible communication. The challenge is trying to shift brands and the ad biz from their preferred home turf, the market grounds, to the fields of the real world, to society.

It’s a bit like calling for a modern day Robin Hood, a partisan force within the advertising industry fighting on the enemy’s territory, a new type of Ché. Although, before we all get to thrilled and our view gets blurred, I should confess, that my success so far is limited.

But, in the odd case, some of my compatriots and I have succeeded and it is for these let’s say 10% of our labour and efforts that we get up almost every weekday and blow the trumpets for a new dawn. If the other 90% bring us down, we’ve lost the fight.

On the one hand we have tons of dosh and desparation as to how to spend it effectively, on the other we have good and relevant projects all over the globe lacking financial support. Surely, there must be a way of matching means and needs?

Yours

Brian B. Ashes