Why anybody pays good money to advertise on it…

…I can’t imagine!A recent article on the state of television said “Surely a fine of £6 million isn’t going to prevent ITV from cheating and lying to viewers” It went on to say “But nothing will change, TV by its very nature is deceptive and dishonest…”Isn’t there a saying “Guilt by association”?Advertising will also be seen to be deceptive and dishonest, so a business that is unaccountable becomes yet just another waste of money by association…recent research indicated that customers felt that advertising was deceitful and dishonest, add advertising to television and what have you got?   Yet the Advertising Industry appears to be doing nothing about this shameful state of affairs at all.The sad fact is that within the advertising industry the old (bad) way is invariably the comfortable option for most advertising people.   New ideas have to be imposed or they will never be implemented.  Bottom-up reform is as plausible as bottom-up rain. And the problems don’t just end there.  ITV was supposed to receive a seven-figure fine over a vote rigging scandal.  However because of a legal loophole the network is expected to get away with a “derisory” fine for passing over the viewers’ choice of winner, the comedian Catherine Tate.Regulators believe the incident warranted a penalty in line with the £2 million levied against GMTV last years after viewers entered competitions they had no chance of winning.The full extent of the deception at the 2005 British Comedy Awards came to light only earlier this month after ITV published the findings of an investigation.  A regulatory source said: “This was one of the worst cases, if not the worst case, that have come to light.”A Liberal Democratic spokesman said: “The public will see this as a derisory amount for the scale of the deception involved.  ITV is ultimately responsible for what appears on our screens so it should be held to account.”The silence of the advertising industry is overwhelming and disgusting to say the least.   The cause of all this corruption is caused by the huge amounts of advertising now on television and the inevitable pursuit of ratings (which happen to totally meaningless because the viewing figures are based on highly suspect numbers).  The advertising business could halt this corruption and dishonesty just by telling the television networks to put an end to it or else.   Of course the industry, together with their ineffectual advertising bodies, will do no such thing as it is not in their interests to do so and so the corruption and dishonesty continues.  The sooner we establish a better form of marketing communication the better we will all be.   And there is a better method already available.The interest in my book “Television killed advertising” is very interesting and flattering.  It also confirms that there are people in the business who are concerned at the mounting problems of advertising like accountability. (Or rather the lack of it), clutter (or rather too much of it).  These people can discover an alternative way of ‘advertising’, which is effective and will immediately solve all the problems facing advertising.  “Television killed advertising” is out at the end of this summer (End September 2008)