Do People Really Care?

I know I shouldn't be asking this question as an advertising practitioner. Otherwise I risk losing credibility in giving comments to creative work and selling them to clients. But I have this nagging question in my head: Do people really care what we put out there?

Okay. I am asking this in the context of merchandising materials and billboards. There are millions of merchandising materials out there, trying to compete for attention and eventually share of pocket. But do consumers really care?

The past few months I've been working my ass off, losing hair and decent sleep trying to crack new materials. We've had several routes, which are really good ones, by the way. Everyone loved it already from the get go. Until new directions were given and more and more.... until the materials are beyond recognition. Bottomline, clients approved it, liked it, loved it, and feel strongly about it. So strongly that the finished products looks very different from the initial compre. Now, waitaminutesomethingstrangeishappeninghere. Call the Ghost Busters!

Then came d-day. It was presented to the very hands-on prexy. He vetoed everything. Because it doesn't suit his personal taste.

I beg this question now: Why on earth would comments given by a foreigner about aesthetics matter? He is not even from here. And that the only Filipino words he knows is maraming, salamat and po. Worse yet, how can he judge a material for teens when he isn't. Shouldn't this prexy be judging on the basis of strategic intent and business objectives rather than execution??? Isn't execution or meddling on it, best done by this prexy's frontliners?

In anycase, I was stunned one time when the client told me this story: She was asked her mommy what she does, and she curtly answered, "we make merchandising materials like such (pointing to a store)." Mom gamely answers back, "Huh, yan? Yan ang ginagawa mo and pinag-oOT mo? Pinag-iisipan pa ba yan?!?" She was just as startled as the mom was.

Sabagay, this isn't the first time I have been asked that. But really, do people care about what's out there? All this long hours and mental masturbation, do people really care about it? Or is price and necessity the only things that keep them going?

This deserves a whole debate. But I get one thing out of this, to many those artworks out there are just drawn up pieces. For us, these are results of intensive internal bureaucracy and ass-kissing. Oh, and it of course, is a science and an art too, nonetheless.

Hehehe.