I remain amazed at the number of marketers who have invested so much into their social media “brand” they can’t be even remotely objective about it. And certainly, this is one area where perception and reality diverge.

After all, we’re watching more TV, not less. And email and search still offer the highest ROI to online marketers. SM has its good points, but everything else does too. A lesson often forgotten amidst the hype.

Then there are the societal issues; I’d suggest advertisers are unwilling to take the same creative chances they did in the 80s and 90s. I looked through all the Fallon McElligott ads in two of my ad annuals and wondered how many simply wouldn’t be released today.

Finally, even though it looks simple, it’s pretty damned hard to write the headlines. When I started in this biz, ad campaigns lasted a long time and it was pretty common to sink some effort into them. Today, most online marketing feels like throwaway work; it’s got a half life of one month, so there’s little point in investing the time it takes to create a half-dozen really good ad concepts.

I alluded to this in the post; the Internet hasn’t prohibited the Big Idea, but sometimes it does seem like a luxury instead of a necessity.

Of course, this could all be the rantings of deluded old guy; feel free to disagree.

The thing about this type of advertising, I think, is that it is perfect for the times today. Those magazine ads like the ones you’ve included — they’re quick, to the point, and have very few words.

It was interesting — when the Internet first became popular, writers and website owners loved the fact that now you could have as many words as you wanted for free (or at least you didn’t pay any more for the extra ones…) But ironically, it turned website visitors into skimmers and clickers — if they didn’t read what they wanted immediately, they knew something better was just a few seconds away.

So how do you combat that? By grabbing attention in half a second. Much like these ads did. I think you’re right when you say copywriters could do a lot worse than imitate McElligott — his style could be the future of web content writing.

~Graham

Matthew Stibbe: You’re welcome over at the Bad Language mansion any time for a beer!

I assume you’ll send the company 787 to pick us up.

Gotta love men; we’re pathetic…

I read the deadspin article right after it came out, it’s no New Yorker, but it can be an entertaining site. It’s a shame when even writers have to be good looking.