• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 13, 2013

First of all, Bryan Boettger is an awesome multi-tasker, and a better moderator than I am, because unlike me, he can keep his panel on message, while looking over his shoulder at the Twitter feed on the screen to see things like my blog post quipping about his Syms "educated consumer" line. So he asked, me what I meant by ending it, "Are we going there?" Fair question, and since I tried to address it during the summit, let me share it with readers here. By going there, I meant does the advertising and digital media industry really want to promote the idea of "uneducated consumers?" If so, I'm covering the wrong business, because I believe advertising should at least strive to make consumers smarter and better informed about its products and services and brands. Boettger's point, which is valid too, is that sometimes advertising isn't intended to inform, so much as it is to engage, attract, entertain, etc. Touche.