• by Lisa Seward , April 28, 2009

Think back about three months to the inauguration of our new president, a breathtaking moment the likes of which many of us had not experienced in our lifetimes. People from every corner of America are giddily hopeful, thrilled at what We the People are capable of, and our intent to change not only this country but the world.

Yet, as you read this, President Obama is nearing the unofficial report card on his first 100 days in office. And the air has lost much of its optimistic sparkle, as we have come to realize the weight of our collective problems and the difficult choices ahead. The glow has been replaced by a gnawing realization that we're in deep, and no ordinary shovel is going to dig us out.

If you think about it, this is similar to what our industry is going through. As in politics, it's been fashionable within advertising circles in recent years to talk about and, even dabble in, change. This is what's behind the now-predictable cycle of "(Blank) is the New Black." (For instance, brand films are the new black. No, wait--guerrilla marketing. Nope, consumer-generated ads. Um...hold on...widgets? Apps?) But now that real change has pretty much been mandated by the people--in this case, by their quickly shifting media habits and rejection of much of advertising as we know it. It's a scary and depressing time for many. How did we get here, we wonder? And more important, how on earth will we dig ourselves out?

In the face of all this unknown territory to conquer, marketing and media types seem to respond in a few different ways:

We fall back on the familiar, unwilling to accept that the tried is no longer necessarily true. See if this sounds familiar: "When I was at (insert blue-chip 1970s marketer here), here's how we did it..." Armed with precious few rules of thumb to help guide our decision making today, some of us turn to what's always felt reliable: history. While that's certainly understandable, the problem is that the past isn't always terribly relevant to the challenges we face now. Are we really going to argue that awareness builds the same way now as it did before YouTube or Google or even email? Come to think of it, are we even sure if awareness is the right goal in the first place? This isn't to say we should turn away from all we've learned in the past, but it's important not to borrow literally from marketing "rules" of old as we step onto the new-media playing field. We have to wipe the slate clean.

We forgot how to ask questions. When we were new in the business, we were encouraged to be curious. We worried less about looking dumb by speaking up with a question than about proving we were dumb by not asking, and then screwing up on a project. Somehow along the way, though, we became the people who were expected to have all the answers .