The meaning of good
I spent some of the Easter weekend reading Tina Fey’s biography, Bossy Pants. It’s not particularly interesting (no mention of Mean Girls?), but it chimed with my wish to write a post about the expression of opinions regarding quality.
Here are two quotes:
It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good.
There is one other embarrassing secret I must reveal, something I’ve never admitted to anyone. Though we are grateful for the affection 30 Rock has received from critics and hipsters, we were actually trying to make a hit show. We weren’t trying to make a low-rated critical darling that snarled in the face of conventionality. We were trying to make Home Improvement and we did it wrong.
This second one in particular made me think of a comment Gout-Legs left here a while ago. It was something like, ‘Better to do something good for a thousand people than something shit for a million’.
So what should we aim for? Good? Amazing? Amazing at the expense of the possibility of good? And what is ‘good’ anyway?
Possibly-annoying fact number one is that there is no ultimate empirical measure of quality in anything. One person’s incisive genius is another person’s deliberately obscure recherché joke. Is 30 Rock ‘better’ than Home Improvement? Of course it… is… isn’t… depends who you ask. Are ‘cleverer’ jokes better than someone falling flat on their face? Have you ever read a Booker winner and thought ‘hmmm, that was rather amusing’, but actually laughed at something more obvious by Terry Pratchett? What about whether Kanye is better than Springsteen? You’ll find at least a million people who will sit very firmly on either side of that argument.
So if there’s no real good or bad, why do we insist on saying there is?
Well, we all have an opinion, and it tends to feel better to express it in absolute terms: ‘The Godfather is the best film ever made’ is more robust than ‘I think The Godfather is the best film ever made’, but it’s less true. And where does that leave opinions on advertising? When it comes to evaluating sales messages we’ve long since left the world of empirical measurement. Even effectiveness awards rely on a series of measures that have been chosen and created to suit the paper that has been submitted.
We can try to evaluate ads based on how well they achieve their goal, but then what is that goal? This campaign was awarded by D&AD in 1999. I have no idea of the extent of its impact in the ‘real world’, but I do know that it spawned many, many ads (lots of them award winners) that turned an abstract concept into a person or creature, perhaps setting us off on the current wave of analogous advertising that has included Balls and Gorilla. So does that make the ESPN commercial one of the greatest of all-time? Did it inspire an entire übergenre of worldwide advertising? How could we know for sure?
We can’t. We also can’t know exactly how much more Guinness was bought because of this:
But it won the Grand Prix at Cannes, The One Show and the Andys, so it must have been the best of the year. Except that D&AD chose not to award it for best ad, instead giving the prize to Sony Balls, which fell far short of Evolution in the Cannes judging. Then in 2000, Guinness Surfer won an unprecedented two Golds at D&AD, only to fail to win the Grand Prix at Cannes and The One Show.
So there really is no definitive measure of quality in advertising. A bunch of people can have a different opinion to another bunch of people. And it’s the same in absolutely every single thing on earth: killing thousands of people with a bomb is bad, unless it brings about the end of World War 2, and even then, millions of people will still think it’s bad; press freedom is good, unless it goes a bit too far for our liking and people start to feel harassed, and Spurs and Chelsea are shit, unless you’re mad. From morality to ads, choice of pet to choice of political party, kindness or lack thereof, none is better or worse than the other.
You may still think that there really are final criteria for evaluation of goodness; that Dylan really is better than Steps; that Milliband must be an improvement on Mugabe; that sunshine is nicer than swearing. But there aren’t. You can only like what you like and do what you’re proud of.
Everything else is is a brain-numbing waste of time.
Which is quite pleasantly liberating when you think about it.
Further reading: moral relativism and moral absolutism. Interesting Seth Godin post that Ant left a link to.
I’d rather have written Sony than Guinness
Me too. Funny how the juries go.
it’s funny isn’t it. i’m with Tina Fey. I’d rather go for the popular hit every time.
i find it rather tiresome when people get too excited about a film/ad. I’ve seen tons of ads that were better than Apple’s “1984”. and Goodfellas kicked The Godfather’s ass. but only in my opinion.
Benny Hill was genius. So was John Cleese. You can usually find something of value in pretty much everything if you look closely enough.
Hi Ben.
Interesting stuff. On the subject of opinions, Seth Godin posted a really interesting (and quite polarising, I imagine) piece today: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
@ Vinny: absolutely. Watch how kids regard everything with a sense of wonder and envy the hell out of them.
(And have you seen 21 Jump Street? There’s a little Whaaassuuuupp in there, 13 years on.)
And thanks for the link, Ant. How you doing?
No worries Ben. I’m really well, ta.
have not seen 21 Jump Street. but i will now. winking smiley face
If we remove traditional measures of effectiveness of advertising (by which I mean sales) aren’t we missing the point of that advertising? If a campaign is beautifully shot, well directed/acted etc. and is a fresh, creative way of dramatising a product benefit based on a real insight into the audience but fails to increase sales, doesn’t it fail? Social currency, Facebook ‘likes’, reverence felt by other ad creatives is a waste of money if spot doesn’t increase sales. Because we work in advertising, not art. Thankfully, there’s a boat-load of research which says that creative campaigns are more effective. I bloody hope that’s true. If it is, the current ‘slump’ in how ‘good’ UK advertising is must surely change?
I think this is a good post! I prefer Sony Balls over Guinness Evolution but the Surfer over the Balls … I can explain why but it’s not necessary
Richard.
since brand value was allowed to be an assessed part of share value, sales and equity stopped being the only reasons to advertise.
And you’re right, we work in advertising and not art. But can you name any artists that work in art?
@ GOUT-LEGS: Maybe we should go back? And if you’re willing to accept him as such, I think Hirst ‘works’ in art (like it’s his job, not his ‘calling’).
Off topic (or maybe not): can anyone fathom out this new work from – you guessed it – Droga 5?
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/1126119/hennessy-wild-rabbit-droga5/
White Rabbit = Keep Walking?
(BTW: I’d like to declare, I have no axe to grind with Droga 5. I just don’t understand some of their work. Like this campaign. And that stuff in the pub for Puma.)
Advertising (as in selling shit) can be art, if done properly. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was just doing advertising, now you’ll find all his work in coffee table books across the world.
If you care about making it sound/look good and you have some sort of insight into the audience then you can make good looking work, work (as in selling shit).
P.S Henri had a bit of help from Jules Chéret.
It makes me laugh when creative directors/clients/planners/digital fuckos/suits doom something because it “isn’t right.”
Like thay are uniquely gifted with the ability to judge what is or isn’t “right.”
I like this post too! Without absolutism there would be no point chatting to colleagues in the pub. It would be really boring. It’s only hate, envy and bitterness that makes a pint and some crackling worthwhile. Especially after another day ‘tweaking the animatic’.
I am currently working hard to make a campaign ‘not shit’, as the client has no real grasp of relativism or, indeed, the fact that many things are subjective. Music, for example.
I rarely use exclamation marks but man oh man, they are really liberating!
I don’t get wild rabbit either. Shame it wasn’t for Wild Turkey. Turkeys are funny.
Great post Ben.
I found it really liberating a few years ago to stop saying that something was “good” or “bad” or “funny” or “not funny” etc, and instead say “I like it” or “It’s not for me”.
If someone is laughing at a joke, by definition it is funny. I can say it’s not my cup of tea, or I personally don’t find it funny, but I can’t say it’s not funny. It simply isn’t true.
Who gives a flying toss what anyone thinks?
That’s not the bleedin point.
It’s all about engagement.
Whether we like it or not.
I don’t get Wild Rabbit either. Hey! Martin Scorsese’s in another ad! That makes 1,452,947!
I don’t have a wild rabbit. Am I missing out?
Following is a rather lengthy quote from Isaiah Berlin. His basic notion however, that the idea that there are ever ‘right’ answers to anything is basically bollocks is as you say, quite liberating.
“The notion that there must exist final objective answers to normative questions, truths that can be demonstrated or directly intuited, that it is in principle possible to discover a harmonious pattern in which all values are reconciled, and that it is towards this unique goal that we must make; that we can uncover some single central principle that shapes this vision, a principle which, once found, will govern our lives – this ancient and almost universal belief, on which so much traditional thought and action and philosophical doctrine rests, seems to me invalid, and at times to have led (and still to lead) to absurdities in theory and barbarous consequences in practice.”
If we aren’t able to investigate what is good and the truth what do we organise ourselves around?
Of course you don’t have to agree with others but fading into relativism and subjectivity leads to ‘who is to say I am wrong’. Better to debate.
It’s not about the conclusion of the debate it’s all about the debate itself.
Oh c’mon John, really!
Sounds like having to sit through a brain-storming meeting….
Tony Benn said, “Democracy is about the vitality of the debate, it is not about crushing the opposition.”
Tony Benn should shut his fucking mouth.
Great post Ben.
And some thoughtful responses.
Except you seem to think I’m mad. Which is upsetting.
But there we go.
Mad in a nice way?
The people have spoken…btw I think Voltaire had something to say on the subject. Something about ‘you can talk shit all you like, it’s a free country’.
I think.
@John p woods: the Voltaire quote you’re thinking of is: “You can talk jive all you want motherfucker, I don’t give a rat’s ass.” A maxim we can all live by, I think.
To Simon Billing:
Great quote Simon.
A N Whitehead summarised it as “The problem with the world is that the ignorant are arrogant and cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
@Original Richard H
That’s the fella.
If we assume we only make an ass out of u and me. If we conclude we indicate we have stopped thinking. Guess the trick is to avoid assumption and concluding then.
This might be of interest to the people: http://vimeo.com/39398824
Well you tell me.
You decree that the mighty CFC and the miserable Chicken Lickers are both shit. And that I’m mad to think otherwise.
So who knows?!
On a serious note Ben – and we can talk openly now that you’ve posted a new topic and everyone’s left the room – I’m glad that you’re continuing to challenge and provoke.
Just for a moment back there I sensed that you were about to throw the blogging towel in. Which would have been a shame.
But in a sense I could understand why. I think that there is a general sense of world-weariness about the business at the moment. If a Five Live commentator was looking at our business at the moment then he’d be reaching for those stock phrases trotted out for the beaten team – ‘their body language is all wrong’,’heads have gone down’, ‘they’ve lost their shape’ etc etc.
About 18 months ago an MD mate of mine was talking about the effects of the recession on his business. As he noted at the time “even the nicest clients are finding it hard not to be c*nts in this climate”. I don’t think it’s got better since then. For many it’s considerably worse.
I might be wrong, but I sense that a lot of people are feeling pretty bruised and battered by the processes involved in trying to get good ads (any ads?) through. The seemingly constant battle with research. The myopic decisions taken by grey people in grey offices. The sheer grind of the system that sometimes seemed hellbent on beating the creativity out of the idea.
Even the good ones don’t get away cleanly. Take the new Discovery spot. That music? Forgive me – but it’s a bit Route One isn’t it? And is already being used by Foxy Bingo. I can’t help thinking that the agency had a smarter track lined up. And the spotlessly clean car? It’s been halfway up the Amazon (allegedly) and it looks as if the car prep boys only just cleared the frame before they turned over. And that’s one of the good ones…
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the business is simply drawing breath before – Rocky like – it steps back into the ring to deliver the knockout blow in the 15th round. Maybe all we needed was four days off and some chocolate eggs to get our mojo back. I’d like to think so.
And while the hot bath in France and Mrs Kay’s peeled prawns might momentarily have been the seductive route forward and softened your resolve (smiley face etc) I hope that you will still deliver a well aimed kick up the arse to the business on an irregular basis.
If you hang up your boots then that’s one less provocative voice out there. And there weren’t that many to start with….
Thanks, Mr. G.
I’m happy to continue things as they are, but as each year passes, it gets harder and harder to give a shit. Caring about last year’s 6/10 average going down to 5/10 isn’t much of an inspiration for a few thousand words a week.
But hey-ho… Let’s all meet up and have a chat about it.
There are worse ways to spend a few minutes.
Sounds like a plan.
And the way the table is shaping up – looks like the Chipotle’s will be on me…..
Didn’t Reebok ‘Belly’ come out before that ESPN spot?