• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, May 5, 2004

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! This past week, I spent some time on the east coast with family and friends and I faced the inevitable question from my relatives of "What do you do for a living?" This is always a great question to be faced with, but it can also be a very eye-opening one as well.

When I'm faced with this question, I typically respond with "I work in Advertising, primarily interactive advertising - ads on the Internet". This gets about a 50/50 response. Half of the time I get someone saying "Ah, so you do those annoying pop-up ads?" or else I get "What does that mean?" Recently the additional question of "Do you know how I can stop those annoying emails coming into by mailbox?" creeps up as well.

Why is it that 2 out of the 3 responses refer to the negative aspects of our industry and the third question refers to a general unawareness of it?

I know it's a product of our own excitement. We're always searching for the right way to speak to the consumer, and we tend to get a little over-eager when we find something that works. We did it with banners, we did it with pop-ups, we did it with email, and as many of you know, I fear we will do it with video. The publishers and the advertisers are equally guilty of these offenses, so there is no one side to blame. The publishers see an opportunity and they exploit it for revenue. The advertisers see an opportunity and they push for it from all of their vendors. How can we avoid this from happening in the future?

The best way to avoid it is to continue to have a healthy discourse on these and many other topics. The various conferences held each year are a good place to start, but we need to have follow-ups on a more regular basis. The IAB, AAAA's and OPA are great starts, but I rarely hear of great strides being taken to push forward an agenda that is progressive and proactive. These groups seem to be very reactive and though responsive, invariably slower than the industry, which runs at the speed of light, literally.

Recently, local groups that are trying to encourage this discourse have popped up. I have heard of the "212 Group" in New York and the BIG ("Bay Area Internet Group") in San Francisco. The One Hundred Club was recently organized and features a number of very smart minds pulled together, but I'm still searching for the source of the full spectrum that is aligned for change. I am looking for something that addresses our needs as a part of the larger scope of Advertising. I want there to be an organization that speaks from the point of the consumer and can provide insight into advertising across media. One that is holistic in approach, but takes the digital medium seriously.

I don't know that we are talking about a new organization entirely or if the current ones will read this and take my opinion to heart, but I hope that someone out there shares my vantage point. When I respond to people who ask what I do for a living, I never respond with "Internet Advertising". I always respond with "Advertising" first. To differentiate ourselves immediately is a disservice to our efforts. The fundamentals are the same for every medium, but the execution may certainly be different.

I'm looking forward to the day when the response to my answer comes "Oh, really? I just saw some ads from [COMPANY HERE]. Did you do those?"