People don't hate ads, they hate anything that's boring and/or irrelevant

As much as I crack up at a lot of advertising blogs that amount to variations on the theme of youradssuck, ihateyourdumbassads, and adsbymorons4morons, it's refreshing to absorb Jim Riswold's thoughts in the March issue of Creativity (the Ad Age supplement they still send me even though my subscription lapsed -- but, hey, don't tell them). Riswold, erstwhile King Creative at Wieden + Kennedy, describes himself as having had a "fairly prolific creative career". The way Barry Bonds has been a "fairly prolific" hitter, even pre-juice. But I digress. Riswold's against-the-grain approach to creative gave us the pairings of Bo Jackson and Bo Diddly, Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny, Spike Lee as "Mars Blackmon", and the riveting commercials that made you look forward to Nike spots. And sold sneakers by the ton. If only the timid suits at the networks could have been as bold and entertaining in their "programming". In Riswold's words, advertising that fails -- in other words, just about every commercial message that assaults us -- is advertising that strives first and foremost to not be wrong. To be safe. Result: advertising that's "boring, wooden, self-important, hollow, familiar, overwrought and instantly forgettable", he said. Sound like any ads you're familiar with? The Rx: coming to agreement with the client that advertising that doesn't entertain and engage is advertising that will not sell anybody anything. As Riswold describes it, "advertising isn't important" the way health, education and family are important. Once you get agreement on this, it paves the way for truly useful, productive, high ROI, memorable branding and advertising. Or, as Riswold puts it, "advertising that dares to be more than not wrong". And it all goes to give further credence to the old truism: great clients make great agencies. Nike let Riswold just do it --wrong.