The Value That An Agency Brings: Case In Point

Amid all the Superbowl hype, there is always a commercial or two that manages to offend someone. This year beyond the godaddy.com ad, it was salesgenie.com. I remember they ran last year and people wondered why. The CEO defended their decision after the game saying that the results from the campaign justified the investment and they would do it again next year. Well, they did - this time complete with talking Pandas that have a chinese accent. I recall watching the game thinking, oh yea - people aren't going to dig this. Sure enough, people were outraged and the company has agreed to pull the advertising.

Not really a surprising move. But the part of this editorial that jumped off the page to me (beyond the CEO's general insensitivity to political correctness) was the following comment:

“We never thought anyone would be offended,” said Mr. Gupta, who developed and wrote both commercials himself.

He developed and wrote both commercials himself. Mr. Gupta is the Chairman of InfoUSA - the parent company of salesgenie.com not even the CMO or Marketing Director. I am sure Mr. Gupta is a fine executive, but this move on the world's biggest advertising stage brings a smile to my face. How many times have we, as advertising professionals, been told that we don't know what's right and a financial executive or operational CEO trys to impart his/her wisdom upon us? The arrogance to think that a brand that is a small-time player, as compared to the other brands in the game, could write and produce their own ad's and break through the clutter is laughable.

However, I am writing about it here and the NY Times did pick up a feature story on the commercials - so maybe Mr. Gupta isn't as naive as we think?!