Civilization Needs Better Marketing
Arts funding is being cut to zero. Newspapers are firing their book editors. People aren’t going to museums anymore. Movie theaters are shutting down. And all of this could be solved…with marketing.
Advertising has always been considered crass and distasteful, which meant that it was embraced by crass and distasteful products - or, oftentimes, crass and very tasty products (Cheetos, Fritos, and Doritos). As such, over the past century, advertising has succeeded wildly. But high culture has generally steered clear. Honestly, how many times in your life have you seen a good book ad?
You know who did good book ads? The author James Patterson. Okay, they weren’t great ads, but they certainly were effective. Because not only could the man pen some page turning thrillers, he was also the creative director of JWT, and he knew what ads could do. Other authors called him crass. But he was the one who wound up on the bestseller list.
Every six months or so, some old friend sends me the Detroit Institute of the Arts’ ad from the 70’s. It is cheesy and dumb and…people remember it.
Advertising for culture works. We could fill up movie theaters, get kids reading, make opera cool. We just need time and resources to do its job. So, instead of new buildings or wings, funders should be providing arts institutions with endowments to create marketing - ideas and executions that will plug the public back into possibilities of culture. I’m not talking about the one-off billboard, I’m talking about a robust plan that includes paid and organic social, crazy merch, radio campaigns, everything and anything. Go wild, take chances, be loud, make mistakes.
When I was a kid, there was a brief period where people wore sweatshirts with images of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms on them. It was a cultural moment. It was also an ad, a marketing stunt created by the legendary Howard Gossage. It wasn’t for classical radio or the symphony, it was for Rainer Beer.
What happened? Where did that kind of creativity go? Why is everyone so resigned to let all these institutions, all this art, all this music, all these ideas, just fade away? It’s time for marketing to fight back. Create great ads for reading books, for going to the museum, for listening to jazz, find creative ways to celebrate the stuff that lifts us up out of the muck, mire and mud. Because, as it is right now, we are sinking fast.