Sir John Hegarty says the ad industry has lost its nerve.

Advertising Hall of Fame member Sir John Hegarty got into the ad business in 1965. He says his was the first generation of advertising people who got into the business because they wanted to. Until then, he said in an interview with Ad Age publisher Rance Crain, people got into the business to pay the bills, but they really wanted to do something else – painting, writing screenplays, etc.

Along the way, Sir John learned that advertising is not a science; it is an art. Period. I share his observation that clients very badly want advertising to be a science. Of course their reason for this longing is so they can measure it in every way possible, satisfying the bean counters and non-marketing, non-creatives who make most of the decisions that control their destiny.

Another thing he said was pretty gutsy – while preoccupied with chasing the dollar, the advertising industry has lost its courage, and CMOs are not being taken seriously because the accountants set up the figures and don’t understand “the soft stuff” where all the value is. Amen, Sir John. Think about a brand from the consumer’s point of view – the “soft stuff” that you can’t measure very accurately is what matters when you talk about the value of a brand.

 Look back at the breakthrough advertising of the modern era. How much of it was produced in the last decade or so? Can you name a great campaign – a truly great campaign that breaks new ground – produced in the last decade? Maybe he’s damn right.

Men Define Loyalty Programs Through Honor, Women See Trust

It seems you can't venture anywhere in the retail environment without being offered enrollment in a loyalty program. According to the new Living Loyal study from customer engagement agency The Marketing Store, shoppers, on average, have 10 loyalty cards in their wallet. But although they may be called loyalty programs, two in three customers don't think being loyal to a brand is important. 

"There’s an opportunity to maximize marketers’ investments in established loyalty programs by using data they likely already have about their customers’ preferences," says Jeremy Ages, director of strategy and planning, The Marketing Store.

Ages says men and women define loyalty from very different perspectives. Oh yeah, he also says 'storytelling' is important to engage the consumer and enhance their experience with your brand. No, that's not me pitching content marketing; he really did say it.

"While it may seem obvious, men and women approach loyalty differently and marketers should take this into consideration when crafting the language of their messaging," says Ages.

Read Larissa Faw's story in MediaPost

‘Daisy' at 50: A Look at America's Most-Influential Political Ad

LBJ's Attack on Barry Goldwater Changed the Game

In 1964, political advertising on TV was still in its infancy. What Americans had seen of national political spots in the previous presidential runs was rudimentary, lacked sophistication and failed to harness the full potential the medium had to offer. A spot called "Daisy," crafted by DDB, would change all of that in 60 seconds.

Today we take many things for granted, media-wise. This includes nasty attack ads from political campaigns that are full of half-truths or don’t even bother with the truth at all, and feature video or still images that make the opposition candidate look weak, crazy, or worse. As we head into the fall campaign season, Ad Age took a look back at this groundbreaking ad from LBJ’s 1964 campaign against Barry Goldwater. Like Apple’s masterpiece “1984” spot, this one only aired as a paid spot once, but it reaped the campaign millions more in unpaid exposure by making itself a news item.

Hershey unwraps new corporate logo, unloads the “apostrophe.”

The Hershey Co. is showing off a redesigned corporate logo that "underscores the company's evolution from a predominately U.S. chocolate maker to a global confection and snack company." Whew, that's some fancy corporate marketing lingo. In plain English, it's a good logo, and it makes sense. 
 As reported in Ad Age, the new logo still includes an image of a Hershey's Kiss, but the new mark shows the tiny candy in silhouette form, stripping off the shiny foil wrapper shown in the old logo. The new image also looks a bit less like the logo shown on a Hershey bar, making use of updated typography and removing the apostrophe 's,' going with "Hershey" rather than "Hershey's."

I’ve always felt using a possessive with your brand name dilutes the power of the statement you make with your brand. So dropping the "apostrophe, s" was a good move that was long overdue. This presentation really does make a more sophisticated corporate statement.In addition to the new logo, Hershey stated that it is "implementing a new, disciplined visual identity system.