We have reached the fourth installment of our ongoing series of mess o’ thoughts on advertising. And the cosmic dance…goes on. This week, Grip suspects that

Advertising is:

32) pop art with a purpose.

33) the sum total of ads + vertising.

34) best when included in the manufacturing process.

35) worst when it accepts any lowest common denominator.

36) the evolution of word-of-mouth.

37) evidence of the false dichotomy between art and science.

38) typically the product of someone starting a sentence with “what if…”.

39) about turning emotion into business.

40) love/hate. And then hate/love..

41) at its best, a threat to the art world – and its worst, a threat to public intelligence.

Welcome to the third installment in our ongoing series of reflections, snippets, and miscellaneous impressions of advertising. This week, we suspect that

Advertising is:

22) a love/hate relationship – and not just for the public.

23) where artists go to not make art.

24) one of the few places a writer can make a decent living.

25) what advertising does.

26) a force that needs to move faster than culture itself.

27) at its best when fearless.

28) about shining flashlights into corners.

29) a gene pool of people who work hard and play harder.

30) driven by deadlines more than we care to admit.

31) here to stay.

Two weeks ago the Big Orange Slide introduced a new series of collected thoughts on advertising, culled from the pulsating brains at Grip Limited.

And now, the series continues.

Advertising is:

12) a product of liquor and guessing.

13) going to drive innovation, not the other way around.

14) soul destroying and intensely gratifying – often in the same day.

15) strangely dependent on focus groups despite thousands of Facebook fans who offer their opinions for free.

16) to retail what a grease-paint moustache is to Groucho Marx.

17) more difficult than it looks from the outside in.

18) a craft, not an art.

19) an industry made up of mostly great people – but a few too many assholes.

20) way more fun than actually working for a living.

21) its own big idea.

What are they on about now?
People love lists. From the Ten Commandments to the inspired hilarity of McSweeneys, lists unite random elements into something that feels cohesive, organized, and harmonious – words that don’t often characterize the day-to-day of the ad industry.

And what a day-to-day it is. We are consumed by our trade. We talk about it, blog about it, criticize and poeticize it. When it comes to what people in advertising think about advertising – well, there is no shortage of material there.

Over the next few weeks, The Big Orange Slide will be cataloguing 101 Thoughts on Advertising, a collection of musings from the hard-working folks here at Grip Limited. This list will be published anonymously, out of the order of submission, and without an eye to drawing grand conclusions.

We hope that at the end of it, Grip will have a document as diverse and tangential as the industry we belong to.

And now, we begin.

Advertising is:

1)  a reflection of our country’s economic health. If you see a lot of it, we’re doing well.

2) no longer about talking at people, but with them.

3) why I have all these grey hairs.

4) all fun and games until someone cries.

5) about problem solving.

6) something that, when done well, can deliver value to both the brand and the consumer.

7) one of the most hotly contested and passionately defended careers out there.

8) only as good as the insight that drives it.

9) at its best, equal parts creativity and science.

10) a lot like “Mad Men.”

11) nothing like “Mad Men.”