Like a lot of people, I easily get sucked into the vortex of media consumption that is so readily available on the web. But am I helping myself? What’s the proper media diet for an advertising professional?
Don’t forget: advertising relies on knowledge of lowbrow culture just as much as anything that’s considered classic literature or art. Sometimes keeping up requires that you watch or read things you really don’t care for. Not a fan of reality TV or “Twilight”? Get over it. You have to at least know what they are, because their audiences are often our target customers.
Another byproduct of such a varied media diet is the fragmentation of our experiences. You can’t assume that anyone, including your closest friends, co-workers, or clients, has read the same stories you’ve read, or watched the same TV shows or viral videos. We can choose to select the information we want. Even to such a degree that we filter out what we don’t want to hear, or choose not to believe.
It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo, which will be on the home page tomorrow.
And if you want to add to your media diet, check out the best of my columns, now available on Amazon.
I like this passage from your new piece:
I have to say, I hardly look at the trades now. Putting AdPulp together once required it, but now we all get the same press releases in our email inboxes each morning, so it’s more about developing a POV as a media brand and delivering that POV in a unique way. I believe we do that pretty well here, and one reason we do is because you, Danny Gee, soak up modern media culture like a sponge.
Thanks for doing it, Dan.
It’s my pleasure, Mr. Burn.