Why don´t you shut up?

This claim could be the envy of anyone in the advertising industry: a short, simple, clear, surprising and relevant message. The perfect formulation in order to generate an undeniable awareness.

And so it was: only a few minutes after it was pronounced, this regal and magnificent exhortation made by the king of Spain Juan Carlos I to Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez was already winging across the mundane firmament that extends over the heads of the common people: from TV to radio, from radio to word-of-mouth to digital editions, to YouTube. And from there on becoming a fresh and revolutionary, popular and spontaneous viral marketing (the envy of creatives and the terror of dircoms), that invaded the hardly ever peaceful existence of our digital devices with dozens of ppt’s, jpg’s, politones , sms and e-mails that covered the event in multiple versions, interpretations and assessments for everybody’s liking.

Not even the protecting walls of Zapatero’s residence managed to prevent this invasion to reach inside. The Spanish President admitted that the first words his daughters told him as he got home from the summit were: “Why don´t you shut up?!”, while laughing and teasing him.

The King-Chavez incident also became the main theme in gatherings, shops and offices. Something similar to an old ad from a Spanish soda who invited people to choose between belonging to the “orange team” or the “lemon team”. But this time people were divided into the “Good-on-the-king side” or the “good-manners-above-all side”.

Incredible. Not even the most awarded “Amo a Laura” Spanish MT viral campaign managed to attain such an overall coverage.

But let’s stop here and think about it carefully….This sensational awareness success… Did it attain any of the objectives set by Spain for this summit?

None of us, at least here in Spain, could help feeling a burst of satisfaction as we heard the king, OUR KING, finally shutting up this annoying man who travels the word insulting other dignitaries with total impunity. A man who, with all the respect for his voters, probably has a lot of good inside, but God, does he hide it well!

But facts are that, after so much pride and rejoicing, diplomatic relationships between Spain and Venezuela have burst in fire; Spanish companies have been forced to decide whether to hold the Spanish flag high up and fiercely defend Spanish pride or to submissively bend before Chávez on the sly, in a desperate attempt to lose the less business possible. Or, what is worse, those unconscious Spaniards who dared to criticize the formerly sheep-skinned wolf in his own country, have now been personally threatened by him.

Likewise, we in the advertising industry sometimes mix up awareness and brand building, creativity and efficacy and art with commercial success, ignoring the catastrophic consequences it may bring.

We only have to have a look at any of our forums to find ourselves heartily defending awesome creativities, exorbitant budgets and surprising ideas, which the advertiser “does not dare” to consent”, “does not understand” or simply ignores in its “absolute lack of knowledge” on how this business should be done. Or energetically praising highly awarded and repeatedly forwarded piece of work, when we have no idea of whether it has generated any business or not.

This reaches its climax at the creative festivals where art, surprise, innovation and “creativity” are exalted, regardless of the commercial results they may have achieved, something that, honestly, I have never quite understood.

Festivals that increasingly become a gathering the advertising industry dedicates to have a close look at their belly bottoms, unconsciously forgetting about that one who pays and gives sense to our work: the advertiser. A strange being who, incredibly enough, not only looks forward to boosting their egos obtaining a prestigious award (we all have our little heart inside), but also to generate sales volume that may justify their position and income; and, if possible, to reinforce their brand (this latter, unfortunately in an increasingly quieter way, due to the stock market, the procurement and the ever more numerous financial CEO´s pressure who have them constantly intimidated)

Mr. Angel Riesgo, president of Spanish main consultant Company of the advertising industry, Consultores, company that organizes the Efficacy Awards in Spain, recently stated that “what is creative is effective”. By the same terms, I would like to state that what is not effective is not creative (after all, what on earth does it create?). Hence, any quality other than this term in a festival at the time of granting an award should only be a “plus” and not a decisive factor.

Sometimes we wonder why media agencies are taking over creative agencies in the trust of the advertisers. Maybe it has to do with them not being afraid of dealing with terms marketers and companies cannot escape from, such as profitability, savings, and return of investment, efficient planning or exhaustive research.

This is not a call in favor of media agencies. Having worked in both my opinion is that they still have many stones to unturn before they can successfully develop a 360º campaign that is consistent in all its expressions. But one thing is sure, we will all have to prove the efficiency and profitability of our work if we don´t want to listen from our client a “why don´t you shut up??” just as notorious, understandable and catastrophic as the recently proclaimed by our- however beloved- king.