• Adweek, Wednesday, October 31, 2007 10:45 AM

The advertising industry has entered an era of "rampant promiscuity" in which client, consumer and agency have all become "brand sluts" without loyalty to one another, says JWT worldwide chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey. But companies such as Apple, Whole Foods and Harley-Davison--as well as "non-brand slut" and JWT clients De Beers and JetBlue--are swimming against the current, he says, and have "reignited the primacy of the brand."

Speaking at Nielsen Business Media's Next Big Idea Conference in Los Angeles, Jeffrey challenges the notion that consumer choice and consumer-generated content equate to being in "greater control." Instead, he says, consumers are cast in a "constant decision-making" mode about everything from who represents authority to who is more entertaining.

Jeffrey also calls for an end to what he terms "idea racism." He says the new brand-building model is "not authoritative, not status-quo driven, more multicultural, more fluid and more open-minded."

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