Death of the idea?

Randall Rothenberg mourns the demise of the idea over here at adage - has it been forever replaced by celebrity endorsements, product placements, sneaky editorial advertorials and event marketing?

"The Great Idea in advertising," wrote legendary market researcher Leo Bogart in his classic text, Strategy in Advertising, "is far more than the sum of the recognition scores, the ratings, and all the other superficial indicators of its success: It is in the realm of myth, to which measurements cannot apply."

Today, advertising is suffused with non-ideas. True, marketers now accept that the 30-second TV commercial has reached the end of its useful life among an audience that is diminishing anyway. But instead of heating a new cauldron of creativity, the frantic search for alternatives has, rather, driven them to seek solace in formats, not in the meaningful combination of content, form, venue and intent.

Excerpt from Strategy in advertising by Leo Bogart