Commentary

This Art Director is 'Australia's Biggest Wanker'

Only in the ad world can this happen. Only in the ad world can a bunch of 20 and thirty-somethings gang up on a guy just because he has a funny looking beard and wears drop crotch pants. Only in the ad world can a marketing publication write a tongue and cheek article about a guy that caused him to be dubbed Australia's Biggest Wanker and have it be taken seriously. Only in the ad world can the whole thing blow up on Reddit to the point where the publishers of said tongue and cheek article had to resort to issuing a rebuttal to quell the outrage. But, yes, that is exactly what happened to Jarryd Zankovic, a senior art director at Sydney-based Play Communications. Ad AdFreak sums up, "The flame war caused B&T magazine to write a rebuttal to the 'shocking troll attack,' asserting that Zankovic is not Australia's biggest wanker, though giving no other suggestions for who might better wear the crown. B&T even rolled out the hashtag #TeamJarryd, which was hijacked about 30 seconds later by more people who had never heard of Jarryd Zankovic and could give a rat's ass about B&T magazine, but who wanted to make more fun of this stylish young man and his immaculately groomed beard." Though Zankovic did say he needs to wear drop crotch pants to make room for his sizable manhood and that, alone, is well worth poking fun at. And the spelling of his first name? Well, let's be honest. That's just asking for it. Check out a blow by blow account of the whole thing on Mashable.

You know what's funny? What's really, really funny? The fact that the internet has turned the entire advertising industry into one gigantic grey market filled with ridiculous silliness. Adding to that silliness is the whole notion of blockers that block ad blockers. Yeah, technology solutions fighting other technology solutions. The latest comes from Brightcove which has created a widget called Once which, according to Brightcove, “eliminates ad-blockers and hides fast-forward capabilities, minimizing the chance of impatient users missing advertisements and increasing revenue opportunities for customers.” I mean, really, think about that for a minute. Now we have programmatic buying which is just a bunch of computers talking to each other to serve ads onto other computers which ad blockers can block and Brightcove can unblock. What the hell do we need humans for?

My how things never change. “Many agencies, especially creative ones, tend to adopt a copy paste strategy when it comes to digital marketing. They create ads for TV and /or print and reproduce them on digital. The two need to be treated differently.” Still? Still? Really? Apparently so according to KFC Holding Malaysia GM of Marketing Kelvin Hong, who recently spoke at a Rethinking Digital conference. Have we not yet distanced ourselves far enough from the early days of digital when, in fact, it really was just a reiteration of what was done in print or on television? Much of the work I've seen would lead one to believe so. But apparently, there are still agencies out there simply re-purposing one medium's work for another. 

Here's a question. If we're looking to highlight the most amazing people in a particular category of advertising, should those lists be broken down into men, women, younger, older, black, white, pink, purple? Isn't achievement alone enough? Hey, I just put that out there. Food for thought. Because here's yet another list. This one's from Business Insider and it's highlighting the 32 most powerful women in mobile advertising. Why? Well, because when they did the list last year and didn't focus on men, women, younger, older, black, white or pink, only one woman appeared on the list. Now I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything but which is better, highlighting awesome people in mobile advertising because they are awesome or because they are awesome and female?

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1 comment about "This Art Director is 'Australia's Biggest Wanker'".
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  1. Jerry Gibbons from Gibbons Advice, September 16, 2014 at 3:06 p.m.

    VW has a new ageny?
    Hey Richard - It has been 8 months. I guess you are happy you did not take the bet.

    Jerry Gibbons from A-Team Advertising Advisors just
    commented on:
    Prediction: VW Will Have A New Ad Agency Inside Of 8 Months
    "The work that Deutsch is doing for VW is really good. I am willing to bet $100.00 that your prediction about VW having a new ad agency inside 8 months is wrong. Will you take that wager? Jerry Gibbons San Francisco, CA"

    Cheers - Jerry

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