According to an Advertising for Peanuts blog post, ads should be entertainment. The author, Jim Morris, even comes up with a new definition of advertising: “n. Entertainment with some commercial message or agenda of some sort in there somewhere.” Morris believes that the advertising industry should stop trying to fight the fact that ads have to be entertaining first.

But I say, if advertising is firstly entertaining, how does that translate into higher sales? Isn’t the point of advertising to get info out about a product, and to sell the product? I’ll agree that entertaining people is a good way to help them remember info about a product, but I think that selling a product should be the first goal of advertising, not entertaining people. That’s what sitcoms, drama shows, books, magazines and movies are for!

In a CNNMoney.com article, Paul R. La Monica states “It’s a disturbing trend for many large corporations, who may find that instead of boosting sales, they are wasting millions of dollars on advertising campaigns that simply boost the egos of marketing executives and ad agency types who dream of being the next Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Advertising is increasingly morphing into another form of entertainment, and not as something that effectively conveys a company’s brand message.”

Why Advertisements Need to Be Entertaining
In an age where people can TiVo their favorite shows and skip the commercials, people need a reason to watch the commercials, and entertainment is that reason. Others argue that people see all kinds of media on the Internet and on TV, so to really stick out, you have to be funny, which is what “entertaining” translates to in this conversation.

But some people take it too far in this YouTube era where all entertainment all the time reigns. “There are some spots on TV where people say, ‘Gee, that was really cool. But what was the product?’” Neal M. Burns, professor of advertising at the University of Texas at Austin, told CNNMoney.com.

Why Advertisements Need to Be Informative
Ad agencies are taking the entertainment factor too far that their message is totally lost. If there was even a message at all. After the 2007 Super Bowl, CareerBuilder’s new entertaining, funny TV ads were poorly rated. For the sake of entertainment, CareerBuilder’s ad agency, Cramer-Krasselt, changed CareerBuilder’s lovable monkey motif ads to a jungle themed ad. The ad flopped and was poorly rated in many Super Bowl commercial reviews. CareerBuilder put its ad account up for review, which angered Cramer-Krasselt, which also created the monkey ads. Peter Krivkovich, president and CEO of Cramer-Krasselt said he was disappointed with CareerBuilder and told CNNMoney.com: “People have gotten confused between what is entertainment for entertainment’s sake and what is actually smart marketing messaging. The YouTube generation of advertising has forgotten that,” he said. “You can have a brilliant, unique, funny ad, but if it’s not coupled with insight it will be forgotten.”

We Need a Balance of Entertainment and Info
All entertainment ads don’t work because people don’t know what the ad is for. All informative ads don’t work because they’re too boring for people to pay attention to. So, as with just about anything in life, moderation is key. Add a moderate dose of entertainment and a moderate dose of information that people can use about your product, and there’s your magical dose of the “just right” ad.