Capita
I love advertising. I love making it, I love talking about it. I love dissecting it. I love inspiring others to love it and I love that I get the opportunity to call it my career everyday.

At the same time, as much as I love advertising, I often hate the way the business of advertising is conducted. Namely, the people so lost in the art of creation that they have lost sight of what and who we create it for. The purpose of creation (to me anyway) is to inspire life. The purpose of advertising (to me anyway) is to inspire commerce. Yet, to really inspire me, there has to be a balance without mad compromise. Brands can be built, people need to become fans, sales must be driven and, all the while, CFO’s should have the right to cheer.

Instead of focusing on all of the agencies that I think abuse the privilege of being in this great industry, I wanted to focus my positive energy in searching for those few who captured the essence of what I was thinking in a way that I wish I had written it. I had to look no further than an agency’s belief statement – a credo, if you will. For all those who I am not afraid to suggest you get it wrong, I applaud those who get it right. See below sourced from halfway up Nob Hill:

Art Serving Capitalism
Capitalism, for the most part, distrusts art. But a look at history shows that business has been at its best when it’s done with a sense of craft and surprise we associate with art.

Art is the stutter step that freezes the opponent. It’s a new way of seeing the world that takes things that are basically the same and makes them suddenly seem different. Art takes things that don’t belong together and welds them at high temperatures. Art teaches business to dance.

We are, no doubt, capitalists. We love business. We believe that it is most successfully accomplished with the help of art. And this faith has makes all the difference. We believe that art is the secret weapon of great business. It is what makes the deaf suddenly hear, what makes the blind see. Notice, however that we are interested in making art that serves capitalism. We like keeping score. We like to win. We like the clarity of it. In the end, art combined with business is bigger art. Business combined with art is bigger business.

Today, I love advertising. Check in tomorrow.