If we are going to have 100 days of on-air advertising with a brand, 25 or 300? How is it possible that we still believe that we can “sell” intelligent people with paid messages focused on superlatives, plastic situations and posed models? What is it that both on the client’s side and in the agency, we insist over and over again on continuing to “sell encyclopedias”?

I can’t accept another day without saying it: advertising has to stop “selling”, as it is understood in the old school. Let’s leave that action to the salespeople on the floor, and let them see how they can turn the visit into a transaction. It will have to be the experience at the point of sale, the product itself, the packaging and its design, the personality of the brand itself, in short, everything must add up to achieve the transaction. Then, it must be the consumer’s fascination that brings them back and creates a lasting emotional bond.

Advertising has to seduce and ignite, move emotions and provoke actions, drive positive thinking and lead the way to lifelong relationships based on love and respect. It is not with specifications and features, it is not always pounding on the cheap, it is not by the “retail” route that we see in the press every day, but by the one that puts its trust in imagination, power argument and 220 volt identification with its buyer.

For this reason, I welcome Nike’s approach on its site to women. I celebrate the way it differentiates its message and makes it local, because clearly, Nike recognizes that there is no such thing as a global consumer, and that, as much as global or regional marketing managers may wish it, the consumer lives local and enjoys her place. For this reason, the music of Santoalalla and the voice of Costa Rican Debi Nova, as well as the message in her “Suda el jamón” approach, is a new proof of boldness, courage and understanding of the Latin woman.

Let hollow advertising die. No more ads without ideas. Let not a single commercial proposal live if it doesn’t contribute and doesn’t connect. Let not another day go by without making a contribution. Let it be said what it is said, but let it make a connection.

Enough of ads that assume people are stupid (because they are insanely wrong). Enough of rational, unimaginative commercials (because people are essentially emotion and turn on the TV for fun). The time has come for creative agencies to stop making excuses, and for executives to stop making excuses, and for us to become the promoters of a legitimate transformation.

Let’s fill the world with lovemarks, and let’s do it soon. The world needs less liposuction and more sweat, less plastic solutions and more personal effort, less shortcuts and more action plans. If we’re going to pay for a page, a website or a TV commercial, don’t you think it’s better to say something meaningful?

So that’s all there is to it. Let’s sweat the ham!
Article originally published on April 16, 2007.