Getting Called Out

I just read this article recently. Proctor & Gamble spends $9 Billion a year on advertising. That number blew my mind - $9 Billion? I read it again, yep, still $9 Billion! To put that in perspective, let's look at Twitter. They just closed a financing round with a valuation of $3.7 Billion. P&G spends nearly 3 times more on advertising per year than the valuation that had all of Silicon Valley, well, tweeting. That's size.
With the size of ad budgets, come ads...everywhere. Jeez, I passed three Apple ads crossing the Bay bridge this weekend! Take a second to think about the last ad that you saw. Was it a banner ad browsing the New York Times? A Google AdWord or promoted tweet? Was it a sponsored ad on Facebook? Perhaps the same Apple billboard that caught my eye in SF?
At its core, advertising is action-oriented. When you see that iPad ad on the freeway, you may not realize it, but that ad is challenging you. It's calling you to action. "Hey friend, over here. Buy the iPad. You'll be as hip as me - lounging in my slippers and consuming all kinds of digital information with ease." Take your interpretation, but the call to action from Apple is definitely to "buy an iPad."
But what if that call to action motivated the consumer to do an action in the real-world? What if that action was good? Wouldn't it make that person feel good to do that action? Wouldn't completing that action raise the position of the brand in the eye of the consumer? Would it not make the world a better place? We're pushing for a change in that call to action. Starting now.