Everyone’s An Expert

23 October 2025

There’s a saying: ‘Everyone’s an expert in two things. His or her own job, and advertising’. This implies two things. First, there is a defined thing called ‘advertising’ and second that it’s something you can become expert in, without expending too much effort.

To the first, the matter of definition. Is a shop front advertising? A shirt sponsorship? Where does promotion stop and advertising begin? When does an influencer become a channel? And so on.

I prefer a simpler definition: to the consumer it’s all advertising.

Last week saw the Advertising: Who Cares? (AWC) Summit. In full disclosure I am Co-Founder with Nick Manning of the whole shebang, but my point is not to say how wonderful it was, how great the speakers were, how comfortable the seats or how immaculate the on-the-ground organisation. No, my point is this: SO WHAT?

This event was deliberately titled a Summit. We want to achieve something with AWC; we want to make the advertising industry a better place to work, that produces better work for the advertisers we are there to serve.

Last week’s effort was not a conference, in the modern meaning of the word.

Useful discussions can and do take place at conferences. They often happen in beautiful places. They are forums to exchange ideas. They allow participants to practice the much under-appreciated skill of ‘networking’. Many are pay-to-play, something not always clear to participants. I spoke at my first conference in the late 1970’s. I’ve never paid to speak (I’m rarely asked these days) and I can’t think of a single speech I’ve made that’s changed anything significant.

A homily on a placard on the desk of a Chicago newspaper editor in the early 1900’s read: “Whatever a patron desires to get published is advertising; whatever he wants to keep out of the paper is news.” As long as everyone understands the rules, then good luck to them.

The AWC Summit (not conference) was not sponsored. Not everything we had to say is popular with certain actors. At various times since we started 18 months ago we’ve been accused of being anti-adtech, anti-platforms, anti-holdcos, anti-modern business. We are it seems an equal-opportunity upsetter. The accusations are nonsense. Anyone can join our supporter group; anyone can volunteer to help. There’s no fear or favour involved.

Last week’s Summit has generated a lot of comment. Much has been very kind, perhaps too kind, too soon. We are, to coin an awful phrase, on a journey – we need to pay attention to the many great ideas that have emerged from 8 months’ worth of hard work by 70 volunteers across 9 workstreams, and then with them, and with our trade bodies and their various excellent initiatives move forward.

Don’t let’s fool ourselves: we are in a mess. We are facing a group of enormously wealthy people who think that advertising is so simple it can be left to them to sort everything out automatically. These are people who believe that anyone can be an expert in advertising.

Meanwhile many genuine experts are busy looking the other way; ignoring the evidence in front of their own eyes. If the techbros don’t destroy us, we’ll destroy ourselves.

There is quantity and there is quality. How you mix them is a skill, if you mix them is a choice, but regardless there are two axis. It is unusual to go 100% one way or the other; generally a mix works best.

Later posts will go more into how not to confuse cost with value.

For now – Advertising: Who Cares? is on the way to somewhere. Hopefully somewhere better.