Of blogs and coughs
Overcome by sheer boredom and an overwhelming desire to distract myself from the fatigue of an excessive, heaving cough, I took it upon myself to trawl through my bookmarks in Safari yesterday. Amid the myriad of advertising websites and forums and what-nots, I found a pleasant little site I bookmarked quite some time back, but never really explored – Tom DelMundo’s Adventures in Advertising.
According to his blog, Tom is currently the Executive Creative Director cum Copywriter cum Art Director at ADWORKS, “Hawaii’s 3rd largest ad agency”. Offering short, poignant and often hilarious snippets of his life, Tom’s blog also includes his book which, of course, I couldn’t resist perusing.
Now, far be it for me to critique anyone’s work, I was left with a few questions. Like:
“Is art direction really more important than the message?”
“Does the headline have to say everything?”
“Are copywriters redundant?”
“How did I put on 3kg so fast?”
Maybe I’m old skool. Maybe I’m following maxims and rules that are obsolete in this day and age of absurdly short attention spans. Maybe no one reads these days. Maybe a good ad now is one that catches people’s attention visually and not one where reading is actually required. Sure, I could do a blank piece of paper with two HUGE words on it saying “BUY NOW!” but really….
Ok, jaded fellow speaking now. I guess I’m just a bit peeved at all the attention that’s given to an ad visually and, while nothing is wrong with that, it very often makes the message secondary when it should be the other way around. I mean, seriously, how many ads out there have won awards, but you can’t even remember what they’re selling?
Oh, and in case you’re getting the wrong impression, all this rambling isn’t directed at Tom. It’s just something one of those thoughts that swirl about in your head when you’re COUGHING YOUR FUCKING LUNGS OUT AND IT JUST WON’T STOP!!!
Um. Hello.
Hope this isn’t a precursor to another bout of pneumonia.
According to his blog, Tom is currently the Executive Creative Director cum Copywriter cum Art Director at ADWORKS, “Hawaii’s 3rd largest ad agency”. Offering short, poignant and often hilarious snippets of his life, Tom’s blog also includes his book which, of course, I couldn’t resist perusing.
Now, far be it for me to critique anyone’s work, I was left with a few questions. Like:
“Is art direction really more important than the message?”
“Does the headline have to say everything?”
“Are copywriters redundant?”
“How did I put on 3kg so fast?”
Maybe I’m old skool. Maybe I’m following maxims and rules that are obsolete in this day and age of absurdly short attention spans. Maybe no one reads these days. Maybe a good ad now is one that catches people’s attention visually and not one where reading is actually required. Sure, I could do a blank piece of paper with two HUGE words on it saying “BUY NOW!” but really….
Ok, jaded fellow speaking now. I guess I’m just a bit peeved at all the attention that’s given to an ad visually and, while nothing is wrong with that, it very often makes the message secondary when it should be the other way around. I mean, seriously, how many ads out there have won awards, but you can’t even remember what they’re selling?
Oh, and in case you’re getting the wrong impression, all this rambling isn’t directed at Tom. It’s just something one of those thoughts that swirl about in your head when you’re COUGHING YOUR FUCKING LUNGS OUT AND IT JUST WON’T STOP!!!
Um. Hello.
Hope this isn’t a precursor to another bout of pneumonia.
