Redefining advertising
In response to suggestions that the magazine should change its name, Advertising Age columnist Scott Donaton writes today “that the realities of the wider marketing world we already cover” suggest that the concept of advertising is what needs redefinition, not his magazine.

Even the word marketing, while broader and embracing more than media advertising, is inadequate to the task in its current definition. For too many people, marketing means advertising plus what some people stunningly still refer to as “below the line” disciplines, such as direct marketing and public relations.

Forget above the line and below the line. Forget lines. Forget silos. Forget competing disciplines and the eternal scrap for what they view as their rightful share of the almighty dollar. It’s about consumer touch points, but for all the talk in the business, there hasn’t been enough action. The industry’s compensation systems, its measurement tools, its vocabulary is still constructed around a 30-second-spot-centric system. To truly move forward, many of those models will have to be torn down and rebuilt.

Maybe we need new words for a new world. More likely, we need to redefine those we already know.