Everyone should spend money on advertising--one sacred cow worth slaughtering

Not sure where to even begin criticizing this ad. I found it in an issue of Advertising Age. Maybe I will just make a list of everything I see wrong:

1. I realize there are some who still use the term "sacred cow," but is it wise to reference killing them? It seems insensitive to a religious practice and not necessary language for our global world.

2. Why are we referencing killing any animal or using the term "gory?" PETA will not like. Especially the image in the lower right corner of a beheaded moo-er.

3. Who is this ad for? The Gate Worldwide. Who are they? This ad tells me nothing. Clearly it is some type of communications company. To find out who The Gate Worldwide is, I had to google. Yeah. No website on the ad. Just some dude with his phone number. I was tempted to be a smart ass and call to ask him what he does, but I am trying to behave.

4. According to its website, The Gate Worldwide specializes in "advertising and corporate identity." Ummm this ad doesn't have any type of branding to identify this company. In fact, I would never have associated the company that did this ad with the company website I viewed. Give me at least a logo. Come on now. I trust that their services aren't stellar.

5. I take issue with a few of the practices that they think should be eliminated. Some that I believe should remain "sacred cows." For instance, "the customer is always right." Regardless of whether or not they are right, it's important for them to think they're being given the upper hand. Customer retention is necessary these days. But I guess this goes along with their belief that it's ok to offend people. [brace yourself for the sarcasm...] That's just good salesmanship.

6. I didn't even make it through the whole list of cows. I had to skim because it's too busy and cluttered. Who can be bothered? Just because you should continue spending money on advertising right now, please don't waste it on a full page of nonsense.

Lesson: Only money spent on good advertising is beneficial in this economy.

Should "PRWeek" become "PRMonth"?

Well this sucks: "PRWeek" to become monthly. Another sign of the times.

The site is also becoming subscription based. They'll lose even more readership once those without subscriptions can no longer read online for free. I wonder what frequent web advertisers will say to this. It's bad enough that PRWeek's print ad revenue is hurting, but now it'll be no surprise if some web traffic slows down and ad accounts dry up.

All of this is such a shame. The best time to read trade pubs is on the bus and train rides to/from work. I like having the whole page in front of me too, instead of just the little screen on my phone. There's something magical about the feel of paper to me.

Somedays I hate technology.

Earning links to your blog

Some good tips from seomoz.org: 21 Tips to Earn Links and Tweets to Your Blog Post. Quickly becomming one of my favorite sites to follow. It always has meat to its posts, not just the usual spew repackaged. Kudos to them.

Woe to the brazen meddler

Something odd happened to me this week. After sending in an ad for the souvenir dinner journal of a national association, the production department for this cheap little journal sent me a scanned copy of my ad. Marked up. With their suggested edits.

I'm sorry, come again?

One of the recommended edits included changing "paves a way" to "paves the way." No. Semantics are important. We do not want to be so bold as to suggest that our firm is providing the only way. There is a reason for the language chosen and it is not their place to judge that.

How excessively unprofessional. The only thing worse would be opening the ad in Illustrator, fixing it and printing it without permission. If it had been a blatant misspelling or other error, I would have been grateful that they brought it to my attention. But it's not their job to do so. Nor is it their job to take ads under a magnifying glass and critique them.

Stick to your job, I'll stick to mine, and maybe we can avoid these silly battles.