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How much of the message in an ad is derived from polling?
JEFF
GREENFIELD replies:
Most
of the time, these days, ads are reflections of intensive polling. This is
something that I find just a measure of how long in the tooth I am. Because
I worked for David Garth, the fairly well known media guy in the early seventies
for six or seven years. We were seen often as the dark power. We never polled
on slogans or ads. We never did focus groups. We never tested them. We did
it by the seat of the pants, because we thought, "Well, we're smart guys,
you know, we'll figure this out."
Today,
the idea that you would put an ad out and not just poll but also, what? "Let's
run this ad in one of those focus groups and see what people think." "Do we
want to build a bridge to the 21st century, do we want to fly to the 21st
century, do we want to march to the 21st century, do we want a pontoon bridge,
perhaps a suspension bridge, maybe we don't want to go the 21st century."
I mean, these are quite literally, with perhaps a small attempt at humor,
what they do. And I think it also accounts for the fact that so many people
look at these ads and go, "Uh." It's not that they're repulsed by them. They're
formulaic.
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