• by John Gaffney , June 17, 2002

So, tonight I’m gonna party like its 1997……Part of the problem with the ongoing debate about whether the ad industry is beginning a “comeback” is the level people are expecting it to comeback to. At some point the majority of businesspeople from Wall Street to Main Street will understand, accept and admit that the year 2000 was an aberration. You will never see 2000 levels of ad spending, page counts, ad revenue, stock valuations or conference attendance ever again in your business life. Seems to me we should all be focused on a comeback that is measured realistically. Not measured against 2000 numbers. I’m not advocating anything less than an aggressive posture toward new business and in growing current businesses. I am advocating a focus on growth by normal parameters. Nothing about 2000 was normal. Don’t you remember?

Whaddya Expect? Instant profits? …….Absolutely kills me when I see press accounts about Kmart’s 1.5 billion quarterly loss, and in the same paragraph we see something like “Kmart’s recent ad campaign was ineffective.” Huh? Advertising is one of the things Kmart does right. It’s recent multicultural effort, under the tagline “The Stuff of Life” won’t win any creative awards, but it managed to differentiate Kmart’s message from WalMart and Target. Unfortunately, K Mart’s problems have a lot to do with inventory, mounting debt and rude sales people. No ad campaign can fix that. Retail advertising can present the strong suit. Retail has to give up a strong suit to present. If a Kmart shopping experience was as good as its advertising, it would be profitable.

Glory Days, they’ll pass you by…..If you’re looking to capture the Glory Days of newspapers, the clock goes back exactly 30 years to Watergate. I say newspapers could still be growing audience instead of losing it if the quality of reporting was as ballsy as it was 30 years ago. The Washington Post, The New York Times and other dailies locked themselves into great competition for the scoop back then and the scoop had nothing to do with fashion, celebrities or who-screwed-who on Capitol Hill. Solid reporting about issues that really make a difference in people’s lives are what newspapers need to be about. There’s no guarantee that the old adage “Bring back the readers and the advertisers will follow” is true anymore. But without the readers, you don’t stand a chance with the advertisers.