Advertising is not for everybody

They are dead wrong - in some sense advertising is a form of commercial art as it has a financial reward at the end, but these conversations have made me realise how little respect we command as an industry for the services we provide.

I have been in advertising most of my working life and I feel that creatively our industry has gone down the tubes, unlike in the early days where we were a creative force on the world stage. However, I do believe that we have what it takes to be rewarded again for our innovative advertising concepts on an international level, but I sometimes wonder how long this will take.

Today I sit front of my television set noticing the different types of adverts - all trying to get my attention. There is some retail, some brand building and others are just a waste of television airtime space, lacking any creative thought. So to all those ad agencies that produce horrible adverts which are played over and over again on our television sets - please stop.

A prime example would be an advert that flighted in December where the Premier of North West was asking the public to drive safely. It was badly produced and even the sound levels were wrong. Adverts like those should not be allowed to flight on our television sets.

If you look at it factually, according to the Department of Trade and Industry, we are a very small industry as we only make up for about 5000 people in total. But due to the spirit of entrepreneurship, there have been a few small agencies that have gone ahead in a gung-ho fashion to open their doors with some of the founding members lacking any business experience - never mind advertising know-how.

This may be fine for some, but what many fail to understand, is that ad agencies are businesses where generally the overheads are high and profit margins low. So, in a quest for survival and due to lack of experience, production quality is compromised. This poor quality of work obviously spoils it for other small agencies that have the experience and expertise to produce great work.

I would like to thank government for giving trade to these agencies in the spirit of trying to promote black business, but in the same breath I would like to suggest that these people are given adequate training in running a business - especially focused on the running of an ad agency, as I believe it is one of the most difficult businesses to run if you have never been exposed to the financial aspects of it.

For those who believe that they can come into our industry, make a quick buck and leave - all because they see it as compiling pretty pictures which need to be combined with a voice over and music - stop what you are doing.

For clients who get kickbacks from agencies for granting them business - you are corrupting our industry; and for agencies that give bribes to get business - I hope you get found out.

But for those clients who contribute positively to our industry, I thank you, and hope that you will continue building our industry from strength to strength, and without you we would not have an industry. Let's start racking up those international awards.