There is nothing new in advertising.

How many times have you heard this axiom?

Unfortunately, each day proves to me, it is true. I ranted in a previous blog, about car commercials that give me no reason to buy the car. I saw not one, not two, but three commercials last night using the "donuts in the desert" theme, Mercedes, Toyota and Kia. The Kia commercial had aliens suck the car up in a spaceship and drop it in the desert, where it proceeded to do donuts.

Apparently, I must be missing the fact that most of the country has turned into a desert and the primary use of a car is to do donuts in the desert.  I do have environmental questions regarding this practice.

I admit when I was a youthful driver, I liked doing donuts in the dirt or snow. Maybe the target market for Kia, Mercedes and Toyota are donut driven drivers or DDDs. These car companies could save a lot of advertising dollars and share their commercial production expenses. Am I the only person who drives on roads and use my car for comfort going to and from real locations (as opposed to computer generated roads and surreal locations)?

Please someone show some creativity! Reread my blog, "When to fire your agency." Here's the short answer, when they are no longer creative.

Toyota Lessons

What have we learned, from the Toyota quality meltdown? In the 80's Japanese cars were superior to American cars in quality. 30 years later, the Japanese manufacture many cars and parts in America. The quality of the two countries have converged.

Here are the questions:

- Where did Kaisen, Six Sigma, ISO, Lean Manufacturing get us? Companies have spent millions of dollars on these programs to increase quality, from car manufacturers to advertising agencies.

- Where is the cost/quality line on ROI?

- What is customer satisfaction worth?

- What is the cost of "packaged" practices (besides hanging a banner on your building)?

Which is a good business practice?
A. Listen to your people to improve quality
B. Buy the latest "management del ano" book and force it on your company associates

(Hint: Who will implement the program?)