Advertising deserves its bad reputation, but the 5% makes it worthwhile

Edu Pou is honest about advertising's bad press: it tries to sell you things, it interrupts what you're doing, and it gets everywhere. That reputation is deserved. But he puts it in perspective by noting that 95 percent of virtually any discipline is mediocre. Literature, architecture, any field you can name has the same problem. There is always a tip of the pyramid, a small fraction of the work that makes the whole conversation worth having. It is that five percent in advertising that makes the job worthwhile and makes it interesting enough to take seriously as a craft and as a cultural force.