 Last night several of us from Cactus attended the New Denver Ad Club's inaugural event for their 2009 Outside Voices Speaker Series. Steffan Postaer, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Euro RSCG, Chicago, was slated to wax somewhat poetically on the topic Inspiring Belief: Creating Cult-like Belief Systems for Brands. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, the only thing Postaer seemed to inspire was frustration and unanswered questions.
At best Postaer’s presentation proved an unfortunate truism of contemporary advertising: character often trumps content and charm can easily win over substance. Chock full of anecdotes and a self-described “silly story,” Postaer’s talk was entertaining to be sure, but when pressed to tell you what it was actually about, I’m not sure anyone could say.
Postaer’s talk ended rather abrubtly after what seemed like a 30 minute-long preamble including a slideshow that mixed advertising imagery and religious iconography to posit the less than earth-shattering idea that advertising creates believers out of consumers. No shit, Steffan. We came here to learn how to create this belief, not just for you to tell us that it exists.
The overtly stated premise of Postaer’s musings was that “we (as advertisers) make you (the consumer) want what you don’t need,” and he seemed to delight in the naughty and sinful nature of this. But when pushed to elaborate by questions such as “Where do you draw the line between morality and advertising?” and “Do you believe there is such a thing as moral advertising?” the best insight he could offer was, “It’s tough,” before dodging with another entertaining anecdote.
By the end of the night it seemed as if Steffan had just reworked and old marketing presentation from his days at Leo-Burnett as a convenient premise to hock his own new book. Which, I suppose, is ultimately exactly what happened.
To end this post on a positive note, the mini Beef Wellingtons served by the catering staff at the Curtis Hotel were heavenly. Our own Jorge Lamora was reported to have eaten nine of them.
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1. wowzers
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, on Friday.05.01.09
well, stephan certainly proved to be a provocateur. congrats my chi town brethren.
matt, i'm a little confused by your polemic. did you think stephan was talking about morality in advertising?
i found his talk and perspective quite interesting. it was like this quasi-structuralist interpretation of powerful advertising.
and to be honest, i've never heard or read about anybody putting propaganda, advertising or any other communication in that light before.
and the religious analogies... i could be wrong, but i think that was just a provocative way to prove his points.
so i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm not sure why ur judging and ranting about his talk from a moralistic perspective. i found him to be a moral relativist.
as the creators of communications, we have the ability to tap into this primordial power of persuasion.
how we use it is up to us.
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2. belief presentation
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 , on Wednesday.04.29.09
Matt-
Thank you for owning up to your words. And for toning down the vitriol. You should also know I received no pay for my time, just a travel budget. As for caring, I can assure I took that presentation very seriously. I was honored to be there. Judging from the warm reception and many questions after, it seems he vast majority was glad I came.
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3. presentation
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, on Wednesday.04.29.09
I came with friends to Stef's presentation, half expecting to see a reel of commercials and a lecture about how great the spots were. Instead we got one of the coolest, fun talks I've ever been to. Why the blogger didn't like it is a mystery. Look, the guy's a character for sure but his talk was pretty special.
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4. Brand Cults and Brand Footprints
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, on Wednesday.04.29.09
I'm surprised you didn't cover the NADS convention in Chicago earlier in April. Judging by your comments here, I think you could have had a field day. The "Brand Footprint" is especially interesting.
You can read the report here:
http://ad-nauseam-original.blogspot.com/2009/04/earlier-this-month-one-of-most.html
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5. Written by
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, on Tuesday.04.28.09
It's too bad when the apps upstage the headliner. Those looked like Ahi Tuna Chimichanga's from Jax.
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6. Patrick,
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, on Tuesday.04.28.09
I am extremely pleased to hear that you took home some sense of gratification and inspiration from Steffan's talk last week. As the saying goes, "One man's trash..."
I agree that Steffan's approach of "Using the seven deadly sins minus murder" to sell products does not make advertising inherently immoral. In fact, by and large those are the motivating factors behind most human behavior and some of the most successful ad campaigns. I also agree with your examples of using less than "honorable" impulses to promote socially respectable causes (although I'm not sure how “Own your C” uses sloth to create a culture/belief system).
What I do disagree with, however, is Postaer's blanket statement that all advertising does is "make you want what you don't need." Sure, in some instances that is precisely what advertising does, but having had the good fortune to be involved with a number of clients and campaigns that promote social causes and public wellbeing (most of-which have NOT been pro-bono), I would propose that we as creatives should aspire to make the public "need what they don't want."
It's relatively easy to convince a consumer to buy another product from which they will selfishly benefit: new shoes, cool clothes, tasty candy, etc. I mean, we’re already conditioned to be a purchasing public, so getting us choose product X over product Y, or to buy more of product X shouldn't be too difficult. What is hard, however, is convincing a consumer to spend time and/or money pursuing an end-result which they not only may not want, but also may not see the immediate benefit from (quitting smoking, volunteering, donating money, etc.)
An amazing example of making the public need what they don’t want is Chiat Day’s work for Unicef with the Tap Project. Convincing people to give up their hard-earned money for an end-result which they will never see is a brilliant feat of marketing genius, but I realize that these are my own personal takes on this game that we call advertising, and extremely idealistic ones at that.
In the interest of full transparency, I was (and still am) the faux-hawk dude, and I wasn't pissed off about anything until Steffan failed to take a firm position on any of the questions I asked him. Perhaps I am demanding too much, but I feel if you are going to accept payment to talk on topics of advertising, belief, morality and society then you should probably have some fairly firm opinions on those topics.
I have nothing against Mr. Postaer. In fact, I have a large amount of respect for him and his work and can only hope to someday have a similarly commended portfolio. I was merely underwhelmed by his presentation. That’s all.
That being said, I cannot wait for the next speaker in the Outside Voices series. I think it is fantastic that the New Denver Ad Club is doing this, and even if the speakers aren’t always what we/I hoped for, they are certain to spark conversation and debate among our community and there can be no harm in that.
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7. Nuts!
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, on Tuesday.04.28.09
I thought it was fun. And so did a lot of the people. People were entertained. Nobody left. The guy from Cactus has a thorn in his foot!
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8. Denver redux
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, on Monday.04.27.09
Yikes... and to think I thought the talk went well, almost as good as the beef wellington! Anyway, I had a great time and think the Denver Ad Club did a marvelous job.
PS: I think I only mentioned Altoids once, in answer to a question.
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9. Written by
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, on Monday.04.27.09
Not sure I saw the same talk as the people in this thread. The presentation I saw provoked some powerful thinking about this business we call advertising:
- Wildly successful marketing is about creating beliefs, not building brands. (That's a subtle, but important difference from what was posted above.)
- Beliefs aren't built on features, benefits, nor unique selling propositions.
- Customers who believe are blindly loyal to that brand – and are nearly impossible to dissuade.
- Using the “seven deadly sins minus murder” to sell products doesn’t necessarily make Stefan’s approach immoral. Would a Museum benefit from a campaign that implies envy and greed? Surely. Does “Own your C” work because it’s using sloth to create a culture/belief system? Of course.
- The faux-hawk dude was really pissed off about something, and unwilling to accept any contrary responses from Stefan. (Kind of unwittingly illustrating the power of believing, if you ask me.)
I’m not trying to start shit, I just think there was more to that event than a lazy, uninterested, disjointed Mr. Obvious everyone here is talking about.
Lastly... sure, he didn't tell us how to create cultures. That's our job – and why we have jobs.
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10. Wow
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, on Saturday.04.25.09
Holy crap. That was some apt writing.
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11. woohoooer
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, on Friday.04.24.09
So that's why I didn't get any beef wellington's. thanks a lot Jorge.
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12. Written by
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, on Friday.04.24.09
Completely agree.
Maybe it is just who he is, but he didn't seem to care much. Speech was short, I thought it was a joke when he said "OK, I'm done." His Q+A was just bumbling rhetoric, never much of an answer.
I think he was trying to say there is really no such thing as moral advertising if you're doing it for profit. Pro-bono is in a different category. At least that's what I think he kind of said.
I think the Ad Club needs some new life. I like that sweet old lady who introduced the event, but man, she's making us look old.
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13. Ha!
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, on Friday.04.24.09
"full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Great write up!
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