Monday, April 25, 2011

Advertising ain't easy.

One of my guilty pleasure shows is "Celebrity Apprentice." (Go ahead, throw your derision my way in heaps and buckets. I deserve it.)

Yes, Donald Trump is a self-important blow-hard.

Yes, the Celebrities are C-listers at best.

And yes the manufactured drama is relatively predictable.

What I like about the show is that it proves how difficult my chosen field is.

The show isn't about business. It's about marketing. The tasks are always either to create an event, make a tv spot, a print ad, etc. And thus we're subjected to watching people who know nothing about marketing and advertising pretend to be experts in it.

The result is always amusing as participants make rookie mistake after rookie mistake. TV spots look like infomercials and print ads look like as one judge described them "Strip Club Fliers."

What it proves is just because you've seen a lot of advertising that doesn't mean you're an expert in it. Making great advertising is an art and a skill. Like anything else that requires skill you have to do it everyday to be great at it.

2 comments:

  1. Great take on this Harvey! I watch it from that perspective, too. Plus, it's really entertaining to see Meat Loaf blowing his top. I'm thinking he might need some anger management.

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  2. I also love the show - guilty pleasure - and I think what makes it so interesting is watching a group of people who are wonderful self promoters try to promote something other than themselves (or perhaps to promote themselves while promoting the product, or promote the product as an extension of their self promotion, in Gary Busey's case).

    Also, if you've not gotten enough of him on the show, Meatloaf is headlining a free stage at Summerfest. And I'm already planning my outfit.

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