This is a talk I gave to undergraduate students at the University of South Dakota.

1. ADVERTISING IS KINDA
DEAD… BUT NOT REALLY
heidi hackemer
@uberblond

2. ADVERTISING IS DEAD"
very popular phrase these days

3. IT IS AND IT ISN’T"

4. The proper definition
The act or practice of calling attention to one’s
product, service, need, etc…, especially by paid
announcements in newspapers and magazines,
over radio or television and on billboards: to get
more customers by advertising"

5. WE SHOUT "
AND THEREFORE YOU PAY
ATTENTION & DO WHAT WE WANT

6. LAZY"
ARROGANT"
PATRONIZING"
OUT OF STEP WITH CULTURE

7. This definition of advertising is dead."

8. But, let’s be honest, the word advertising isn’t
going anywhere anytime soon – it’s too
ingrained, too easy as a shorthand

9. Your mission, young warriors, is to infuse new
meaning into that word so our industry is not
perceived as lazy, arrogant, patronizing and,
most importantly, out of step with culture

10. WTF HAPPENED WITH CULTURE?

11. DIGITAL HAPPENED"

12. DIGITAL CULTURE (at it’s best) "
Democratic
Open
Fast
Playful
Scrappy
Accountable
Pretty dang human

14. A COLLECTION OF THINGS I
PERSONALLY LOVE ABOUT "
DIGITAL CULTURE

15. THE IDEA, NOT THE LEGACY, RULES"
Twitter is five years old
YouTube is six years old
Facebook is seven years old
Google is fourteen years old

16. DOING IS DEMOCRATIZED

17. THE GIG IS UP"
In the US, TV was made by advertisers
The Internet, although it has a military/education DNA, was built
by the collective
As web-culture continues to define mainstream culture, the
collective is and will continue to call us out on our BS

19. DIGITAL CULTURE
the values of digital are becoming our cultural values

20. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR US?

21. IT’S A PRETTY AWESOME TIME "
TO DO WHAT WE DO

22. MORE COMPETITIVE WORLD "
CREATIVITY IS OUR SWORD "
PEOPLE MATTER "

23. THE CANVAS TO MAKE BRANDS DO
ALL THIS STUFF IS AWESOMELY
COMPLEX AND RICH"
(which means, our jobs get more and more interesting every day)"
(which means, brilliance should come from every discipline, not just
the creative department)

24. BUT YOU HAVE TO PARTICIPATE

25. BRANDS GET AND NEED TO BE "
MORE HUMAN"
and be about more than just the
idealized consumptive act

26. SHIFT"
traditionally a brand’s relationship with a person has been based on
the consumptive act married with idealized emotional benefits. very
few brands presented much more than that
but culturally, consumption, people’s relationship with consumption
and the emotional effect of consumption is being questioned
to stay relevant, we have to adjust

27. MEANING…"
brands need to do more, talk less"
they need to have conversations
they need to have an opinion
they need to be useful
they need to flex and move
they need to be smart
they need to show their warts
they need to work for our love
they need to provoke
they need to entertain and have fun
they need to do

28. PATAGONIA FOOTPRINT CHRONICLES

29. GOOGLE DOODLES

30. SCION

31. BURBERRY

32. HUMAN BRANDS"
we like to be around them (useful/entertaining)
they’re complex (warts and all)
they’re interesting
they move at our pace
they like to talk with us
they make us think
they’re in sync with culture

33. Be brave! Go have fun!

34. thank you