Today, Alan Wolk had a great post on creativity, and whether it still matters because good products sell themselves. He makes a lot of good points (as usual), but I think a big takeaway is something he just glances over.

He talks about how if you dig strawberries and Cherrios, then you’ll probably like Strawberry Cherrios regardless of the advertising. He also mentions the reverse is true. And I think that’s where the big point is.

For example: I really don’t like Budweiser. I just don’t. And honestly, no matter how awesome, witty, or iconic their advertising is, I’m not going to run out and buy Budweiser. Ever. So for me, as soon as the Budweiser ads come on, I’m tuning out the “ad” part and just looking at it for entertainments sake.

And Budweiser makes some really entertaining ads. The problem, however, is that they’re completely useless when it comes to making me actually by the product.

Which leads us to this little paradox: Entertainment (product placement, etc.) has become effective advertising and advertising has become effective entertainment. Weird!