Why are there so many bad adverts?

Add to that combination clients who don't understand what they're trying to achieve and agencies that don't have the necessary skills to execute in a strategic and clever manner and the result leads to bad adverts. What those outside the marketing fraternity suspect is, indeed, true. However, the prevalence of "poor examples" isn't confined to the world of marketing but rather, this opinion is a cognitive illusion that psychologists refer to as the "availability heuristic".

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that people make in order to reach decisions more quickly and with the least effort possible, because we're all fundamentally lazy thinkers. The availability heuristic is, therefore, a mental shortcut that occurs when people make judgments about the probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples. To illustrate this, flood insurance sales increased dramatically in the months following Hurricane Katrina in the US because of the availability effect of the horrendous storm.

Pick a bad example - there are loads of them

And it's easy to think of poor advertising examples. They are necessarily available to us all. They have to be placed in front of us and repeated in order to garner any of the tiny portions of attention that might be up for grabs in our subconscious and conscious minds in order to sell their product. It is the fact that they have to be in the public domain so much of the time, that it creates the impression that advertising in general is so bad. By the sheer law of numbers, we are simply bound to see a large number of bad adverts frequently. But poor percentage performance is not limited to the marketing domain.

Think about it this way. How many crooked lawyers do you think are out there? How many financial 'professionals' are hawking loan-shark deals, brokering dodgy financial propositions and slicing off pieces of pie for themselves? Sub-prime mortgage crisis, anyone? How many qualified doctors undertake invasive, irresponsible procedures for personal gain? Architects and engineers who pilfer away funds by using poor-quality materials? But how often do we hear about these cases? Every now and then, sure, and it tarnishes our views of that profession for a while. But how quickly we forget. Because there's no 30-second reminder waiting for us during the next episode of Private Practice or at half-time during the rugby.

Rational? Wrong!

Coupled with this relative availability of "poor advertising" is the common belief that people regard themselves as far more rational than they really are. They believe that they are capable of and driven by well-reasoned and logical decisions. Therefore, it is inconceivable that an advertisement or piece of branding could in any way over-ride our rational brains that accurately weigh up the pros and cons for any decision and consistently choose optimal outcomes for ourselves. Well, I have news for you...

That car you drive. That watch you wear. Those sunglasses on your desk. That TV you'll watch tonight. That impulsive chocolate, item of clothing or electronic gadget you bought at Canal Walk. Like it or not, those purchase decisions were driven and dictated by some form of advertising, messaging and branding along the way. And not all of them were rational; far from it in many occasions. Decisions were made in split seconds, post-rationalised in our narrative-loving minds. They were made because of effective advertising and messaging. However, because we believe we are in full control of all of our decisions, we don't view it this way. We create stories post-facto to convince ourselves of the rationality of our choices. It makes us feel safer that way, in control of our lives.

Irked

Sure, the lack of professional accreditation requirements to enter the marketing industry does mean that barriers to entry for the less talented are lower than in other professions. And sure, that can lead to many and very examples of bad advertising - but this is just like any other industry.

Therefore, the availability heuristic means that good marketers will constantly face this battle and this is something that irks me.

But so long as those who scoff at those ads during half-time, before muting their Samsung HD-TV, checking the time on their Fossil watch, slapping on their Ray-Bans and grabbing the keys to their Toyota Prius whilst snacking on their Woolworths organic fruit-sticks before heading out for a day of 'rational' decision making, should marketers care?