"Web citizens don’t want a capitalist tool to piggy-back on our freedom-of-speech agenda."

Shock Me Not: Why Advertising Is On It's Way Out
Words by Zarina Holmes

Time must be very hard for advertising agencies. It’s bad enough that most of the budget has gone into digital marketing. Now consumers are two steps ahead of ad creatives in manipulating social media.

The recent furore about the Spanish website, Pincha la Rueda de Hamilton (Burst Hamilton's Tyre), which contained racial abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton confirms my suspicion all along – most ad agencies are not “with it” anymore.

According to Guardian.co.uk, the site claimed to have had more than 21,000 visitors.

Its home page featured a graphic in which nails and tin-tacks are strewn on the Interlagos circuit, where he will attempt to win the world championship in the Brazilian grand prix on Sunday. Pretty much like an interactive game.

The site was created by Spanish branch of TWBA, a global advertising agency which tagline is 'Disruptive Ideas Expressed Through Media Arts.

What a pile of dung. It has now been suspended.

I guess the creatives involved were trying to suck-up to the supporters of former McLaren driver Fernando Alonso, who was embroiled in a battle against Lewis Hamilton, F1's first mixed-race driver.

I can imagine the brainstorm session they had, possibly around a glass table. These so-called creatives in skinny jeans and geometric-shaped glasses saying, "Yeah, let’s shock the world with racist taunt and get millions of hits on our sites!”

Except that post Paris Hilton's homemade video and Saddam Hussein’s YouTube execution – no one can be shocked anymore.

I did a dissertation about shock advertising in the mid-90s when I was a student, when art directors used to sport ponytails and Benetton “Colours” was the most shocking ad campaign ever. Even then the topic was going out of fashion.

Ad agencies are responsible of their own demise for being out of touch and failing to adapt to global change of perception.

What they don’t get it is that today we do not need someone with advertising degree to launch a viral or employ guerrilla marketing.

It is true that some of my own friends in Spain couldn’t see why the racist remarks about Hamilton made huge headlines in the UK.

Even so, I believe the ad agencies should leave the debate to blogs and web forums. Web citizens don’t want a capitalist tool to piggy-back on our freedom-of-speech agenda.