{"id":1928,"date":"2026-03-16T09:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:09:24","slug":"from-the-sofa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/from-the-sofa\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Sofa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a group of individuals that\u2019s grown both in numbers and influence across the industry over the last ten years or so. They have no trade body, no corporate structure, no common goal. They deal in ideas and opinions. We need them and their ideas more than ever, and yet they\u2019re subject to rudeness, criticism, sneery little digs from those they dare to criticise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m talking about expert commentators, consultants, or as some would have it; sofa warriors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those brave souls in their corporate bunkers are not always so complimentary. If anyone, ANYONE dares to say anything even a little critical of the organisation that pays their wages, they leap into action. It\u2019s like waving a red rag in front of a particularly angry and rather shortsighted bull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What do you know; you last worked in an agency twenty years ago; you\u2019re not on the inside; you just believe any old rubbish; your post layout sucks; \u2018your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries\u2019.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those is I admit courtesy of Monty Python; but if I possessed a little more imagination (or access to a copywriter) they all could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does all of this matter? Isn\u2019t what gets said on the socials the modern-day equivalent of today\u2019s fish wrapping?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most thinking people within this industry know we\u2019re not in a great place. We face a number of problems, from ad fraud to a lack of trust, from a business model that is no longer fit for purpose to a set of the most powerful media operators the world has ever seen who see us as at best rather irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our systems of measurement, the building bricks that form the bedrock of any indicator of success have largely moved out of our collective control and towards those whose channels they\u2019re designed to measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve also lost perspective. Take the Molly Russell case covered here<\/a> last week.  It seems that we are less concerned about advertising on channels that play a role in young suicides every week than we are about our ads appearing opposite a negative news headline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ad business of today is run by those who receive ad revenue, as opposed to those who spend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody really doubts these problems exist. In previous eras the largest and most respected organisations, the agencies in their various forms along with our trade bodies would be leading the charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past misdemeanours have a nasty habit of resurfacing. It\u2019s hard to argue for transparency and beating fraud when you\u2019re accused in court of misusing client money. It\u2019s tricky to make the case for creativity and craft at the same time as closing agencies and making thousands redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency trade bodies, the IPA here, and the AAAA in the USA have been disappointingly silent over many of these topics over many years. They should learn from the advertisers\u2019 trade organisations, those representing the views of the guys who pay the bills; ISBA, the ANA and the WFA have all been far more proactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IAB in Sweden showed what can be done when they expelled META from membership last week. For not doing the right thing regarding scam ads. Sadly, the IAB elsewhere has to date done nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is not who sits where in the bad boys\u2019 league table but that there are many issues the industry needs to address that its biggest players are ignoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why sofa warriors should be praised for raising the issues, speaking out, taking the problems seriously, suggesting solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our leaders, the largest organisations with the greatest resources really should look beyond the next quarter, and wonder if there\u2019ll be an industry worthy of the name in a few years\u2019 time. Or will the platforms own it all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that comes to pass it will be someone else\u2019s fault. Probably someone on a sofa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick postscript. I\u2019m writing this on the morning after the Oscars. The Best Documentary award went to \u2018Mr Nobody Against Putin\u2019. In his acceptance remarks, the film\u2019s co-director David Borenstein said: \u201c\u2026when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it, we all face a moral choice, but luckily even a nobody is more powerful than you think.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a group of individuals that\u2019s grown both in numbers and influence across the industry over the last ten years or so. They have no trade body, no corporate structure, no common goal. They deal in ideas and opinions. We need them and their ideas more than ever, and yet they\u2019re subject to rudeness, criticism, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}