Advertising comes in all forms, from TV commercials to brochures. But it would be nice if most advertising came from people we knew and trusted, wouldn’t it? In one way, with word-of-mouth advertising, it kind of does. We see some cool shoes on our friend, she says they’re comfy so we go out and get ourselves a pair.

 

In another way, we see something on a celebrity and we immediately want to go out and get a knock-off since we can’t afford the real thing. Similar kind of concept – it’s almost like word-of-mouth, but more like picture-in-tabloid advertising. Either way, we like what we see and it’s not directly from the advertiser, which makes us like it even more, although some would argue that point when it comes to celebrities getting free stuff and wearing it to make us common folk want it.

 

Chris Brogan has a video on his blog (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-way-i-wish-advertising-worked/) from John Chow that shows Chow eating at a crab shack in Washington state. This kind of advertising is what Chris would like to see more of instead of newspaper ads or banner ads on a Web site.

 

I think the concept is good – people advertising for places that they thoroughly enjoy, without getting paid to tout it, but I don’t think this particular video is that great. It doesn’t make me salivate and want seafood the way a Red Lobster commercial can. There’s something to be said for staging and good lighting, I think.

 

And, sometimes ads aren’t all that bad. Some are downright funny (hello, Super Bowl) and there are even shows dedicated to showing the funniest TV commercials all over the world. Sad, but true – I’ve actually watched that show and I think I laughed out loud more than I ever did watching many sitcoms.

 

Besides, what would ad writers and production crews do if we took away the ad? They’d starve to death and we can’t have that! We’d have to live with the guilt and knowledge of wiping out an iconic pastime in America: the poor ad. And anyway, as people continued to make their own home video-type of ads, those people would become the ad actor and actresses and then they’d be hiring their own production crews and ad writers, and then we’d be back to square one.

 

So, I agree that word-of-mouth advertising works, or word-of-video or whatever you want to call advertising on the ‘Net, but I think we shouldn’t shun the traditional advertiser. When would we go to the bathroom during TV shows if we did?