Uber-smart economist and author David C. Korten postulates that the nation’s economic model needs to pay more attention to mom and pop and less attention to Wall Street. He argues that too many institutions generate “phantom wealth” – things like speculative trading, asset bubbles, debt pyramids, and predatory lending. Contrast that with Main Street, where actual stuff is made by actual businesses. This, Korten argues, is the sweet spot for economic recovery.
Here is a quote from a review of his new book, Agenda For A New Economy from CSRwire:
Our hope lies not with Wall Street, Korten argues, but with Main Street, which creates real wealth from real resources to meet real needs. He outlines an agenda to liberate the latent entrepreneurial energies of Main Street from Wall Street’s deadly grip and bring into being a new economy—locally based, community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits.
I would suggest his ideas can also fix (read, eliminate the need for) Madison Ave, which is now so intertwined with Wall Street that it is impossible to tell them apart. Think about his term “phantom wealth” as it relates to advertising…Public clients hire public agencies who go through rounds and rounds of strategy and rounds and rounds of creative. 50% of the time (a best guess based on my own experience), projects die. The other 50% results in garbage that any agency could have come up with in an hour (again, a best guess based on my own eyeballs).
If that’s not the creation of phantom wealth, I don’t know what is.
I believe we’re about to embark on a new era of entrepreneurial marketing. Yes, it is out of necessity. But frankly, I’m excited about it.
9 Comments
I think this reads oh so true. It sounds a lot like the theories that Jane Jacobs proposed in her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” in 1961. She said that if you want to create a vital downtown community, you don’t need office towers, and boutique shops, you need grocery stores and laundromats, necessities for everyday life. She stopped a superhighway from being built thru the middle of Greenwich Village.
Let’s hope it’s not too late to stop this superhighway into the financial gutter.
It’ll be interesting to see how the advertising industry evolves in Economy 2.0
I’m excited too.
“50% of advertising is junk”(sic) is a generous statement. I watched the agencies cannibalize themselves in the 80’s and relinquish creative control from talented creatives to agency / client committees. By definition a committee will arrive at a compromise, yielding at best unremarkable work. As the years passed the committees have grown and we all know what the result of that was. Just look at the work.
Carl, you misunderstood my point. I was saying that for every 100 assignments, 50 die altogether. The other 50 that actually see the light of day are ALL terrible. (At least, nearly all. Hyperbole is a writer’s license.)
Only half of the money spent gets spent to produce something. And 100% of that (or very close to it) is crap.
David is right on the money. I’ve been meeting with out of work creatives to start our own thing, by our own rules and its not going to be safe work.
When was the last time you really remembered an ad? Watch any consumer read through a magazine and they just flip from page to page. Nothing stops them until they reach the end and toss the rag.
We have to be creative and not safe. We need to be aggressive in our work. Not mundane. I hated the mundane shit so many photographers put out.
Sadly all of this shit(shit ad, shit photography, shit design, shit copy) reminds me of that South Park episode where people shit out of their mouth.
The worst thing the agencies did for their survival was lay off so many creatives. The best thing to happen to creatives was to be laid off. Now we can get together start something new with out all the bull shit and make something groundbreaking happen. Everyone involved, client included, will profit with better ads, lower prices and better results.
We need each other we DONT need an agency to keep us down.
I think local economies and decentralized control are going to get more important in a big way in the future.
The idea of enormous nation-states and international economies run from on high by some grand poo-bah is really holding back progress for most of us. But it certainly has helped the ruling classes maintain power and continue to enrich themselves on our backs.
How absurd is it that we’re still ruled by political ideas that were already hundreds of years old when the U.S. was founded?
I know this is an advertising blog, but everything is connected…
Giulio…lead the way. Become a pioneer in what’s next. Because, clearly, the current system ain’t working. Everyone, follow Giulio’s lead.
@Admin. You got it. I already have been meeting with laid off creatives that I worked with on campaigns in the past and we’re working on some gorilla marketing with small businesses.
Also turned my studio into a co-op so that I can lower my operating expenses and am able to take big risks while at the same time offer space up for emerging pros that can’t swing the cost of a studio.
I’ve also partnered up with a production company that makes short viral films and that has been producing some work too. Check them out at http://synthetichuman.com/
I’ve found facebook a great resource for meeting other artists. Find me on the FB.
If we all work together. It will happen.
Mom and Pop business is what has kept us alive for 26 1/2 years. If you’re creative i one way, then find people who are creative in the ways you lack. Find yourself a good strategy/salesperson who knows how to get a client to understand what it is they need, then put everyone to work making the products. I sell the business, write the copy, we shoot the TV/video, design the web sites and all make a nice living. And we have fun doing it with a very loyal client base…all here in Hooterville. You can do this!
Looks like interesting book. Thing that could make the local-economic generation thing work are technologies like public wi-fi and location based mobile services. To me that’s the real promise of real time applications like Twitter and mobile computing. Real basic stuff like instant couponing and promotions offered at the local level. A place to watch.
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