Nobody Reads Anymore. So You Probably Won’t Read This.

“Ten million decibels loud. And it doesn’t care if you’re tired. Or that it’s your birthday. Or some holiday honoring a saint. So, though you’d rather not, you start down the road again. The road, when it calls, it screams.”

Wow.

This is the copy from a Nike Running Shoes print ad that ran more than a decade ago. It’s one of those ads that when I first read it made me say, “Damn, I wish I would’ve written it.” And today, it still evokes that feeling in me.

I bring up this ad because it is appearing in the latest issue of One, A Magazine, which is featuring the “Legends of Advertising.”

The issue is a real walk down memory lane. And for any young creative, it’s definitely an issue worth reading.

Why?

Because it reveals an art that quite frankly, I think is being lost.

The art of writing.

Today, the approaches we take in communicating to and connecting with our audience are drastically different than the approaches we took when I was a young, green writer.

Not that the approaches we take today are less creative, or less effective or less worthwhile. In fact, I think the “job” of being a creative is far more difficult – and more exciting-- than ever before.

But as our society surges headlong into the digital age with vehicles such as YouTube and social media and guerrilla tactics and text messaging and TiVo, we as advertisers are rethinking everything. And in an era where we’ve all convinced ourselves that nobody reads anymore (please explain the growth of bookstores, amazon.com and others), we’ve taken a “hit ‘em fast and move on” mentality. 

That’s why we see so many visual solutions, without copy. That’s why we see so many invasive alt media solutions. And that’s why we as advertisers are scratching and clawing to find the next big “thing” that will reach our audience.

And in our search for that “thing,” whether it be mobile media or digital newspapers, we are forgetting to some degree the basic principles of communication. And that is talking. Relating. Understanding. Empathizing.

Ads no longer sit down with us for a nice long conversation. They don’t put their arms around us and hold us. They don’t try to be our friend.

The Nike ad does that in so many ways. It understands the mentality and thought process of its audiences. It empathizes with the passion and dedication of runners. And it communicates that understanding in a way that is downright poetic.

Quit-hit visuals can’t do that. Invasive alternative media can’t do that. And maybe the communication landscape has changed so much that we won’t ever be able to do that again. Which is kind of a shame. Because I’d really like to sit down with an ad. And get jealous again.