Why our profession can't get any respect

A woman called Barbara in one of the LinkedIn groups which I follow asked a simple question: "What makes for an effective advertisement?" There were literally hundreds of responses, from absolutely incomprensible to downright stupid to brilliant to thoughtful to off-topic.

Two things emerged:

(1) There is no clear concensus about what makes effective advertising (even among professionals)
(2) People can't read... many answered completely off-topic

And, there were some answers, like the one below, by one Adrian Fox that just makes me realize that it is no wonder we don't get any respect as a profession.

Take a look at what this Adrian Fox wrote. Now... this is a guy who supposedly spent 20+ years in advertising, advertisers himself in LinkedIn as "Founder and Managing Director" of something called BFT International and Marketing Director of something else called KrisAssists.com which, in turn, says this of itself:


KrisAssists.com is a website designed to provide practical solutions for individuals with physical disabilities—written by the disabled community for the disabled community. 
Even those who have quite common disabilities often have distinct issues arising out of them...so your positive experiences...

Take a look

Even car sales are more professional.

One of my pet peeves about this business is that, if you want to cut my hair for $20... you must get a license. If you want to sell my house... you must get a license. But, if you want to hang your shingle, call yourself a marketing and/or advertising expert and then waste millions in advertising creating creepy Kings and subservient chickens... well... you don't. That's pretty bad.