Advertising has become so bad that people are happy to pay to avoid having to see it.
Bob Hoffman says thanks to our obsession with online advertising, it’s turned from a minor annoyance into a scourge.
‘It has been reported that over 400 million people worldwide - 400 million - now have ad blockers on their devices. This is the opposite of engagement. This is dis-engagement on a monumental scale. This is the largest boycott of anything in the history of humanity.
‘We’ve got to stop bullshitting ourselves and come to terms with reality.
‘If we want there to be an audience for advertising, if we want people to be engaged with what we do, we have to do a lot better. We have to make advertising beautiful, and interesting, and entertaining. And I have bad news… algorithms, and data, and metrics can’t do that. Only people can do that.
‘Let’s not allow the devaluation of creativity to continue. I’m tired of hearing that advertising isn’t as effective as it used to be, or as creative as it used to be.
‘We have so many more amazing tools and amazing media options than we’ve ever had before for making wonderful advertising. We have much better data. We have much better ways to measure.
‘We have no more excuses.’