death of a salesman, birth of a friend.

It comes as no surprise that ad professionals are ranked as one of the least trustworthy professions. In fact, we’re ranked just below used car salesmen. Maybe this suits us well – the majority of the time the messages communicated through the mass media are driven by the client rather than by common sense. We are hired to convince specific target audiences that they need – no, that they can’t live without – rubber bands shaped like seahorses, or lotion that will leave your skin as tanned as Snooki’s.

Most of these messages are dismissed as soon as they are perceived. But it wasn’t always that way.

There was a time and a place where advertising was king. There was also a time and a place where Michael Jackson was king. That time has passed.

Today, we – consumers – are exposed to advertising in porta-potties, in elevators, in subway tunnels. Messages are flown across the sky, embedded in video games, and smeared across almost every surface in your local bar…including you. Technology exists that can project a high definition advertisement onto your side-view mirror while you’re cruising down I-95. A million messages are seen, and only a select few survive.

I, for one, do not want to be told what I need, what I like, what to buy, wear, see, do and think. No one does. And yet companies continue to hire advertisers to peddle messages that go unheard.

Contrary to popular belief, ad professionals do have their fingers on the pulse of what drives consumers to buy, and it’s not advertising. At least not alone. Today, consumers need to have control. They want to develop relationships with brands that reflect their unique personalities, and they want to do it on their own terms. Consumers don’t see an ad and run off to purchase anymore – they peruse Facebook, Twitter and Yelp!, and depending on what they see and hear, they run off to purchase. And don’t think that advertising in its traditional form will hold water in social media channels. It won’t. Anything perceived as advertising will be immediately dismissed as just that – advertising.

I don’t mean to challenge the very foundation of the ad industry. And I don’t mean to say that advertising is dead. There is still a place for it, but it’s a smaller place given the new way that consumers collect information and make decisions.

Ad professionals know how to manipulate the delicate balance between advertising and social media in a way that generates results. But when a client wants advertising and advertising alone, well, okay.