I was at a planning day yesterday where coupons were referred to as the heroin of media. Once you're on it, you can't get off. Immediately following I had a source of brilliance lean across and tell me that if coupons equate to heroin then surely TV is the crystal meth of the media world - cheaper and more addictive.
This got me thinking... should we approach the tough transition from traditional media and media plans like one would a rehab program?
1. We admitted we were powerless over the force of TV ? that our marketing efforts and had become unmanageable without it.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (the agency and new world of communications) could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God (the agency) as we understood that we pay him to be the expert.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God (the agency), to ourselves, and to our consumers the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God (the agency) remove all these defects of character and embrace the improvements they recommend.
7. Humbly asked Him (the agency) to remove our shortcomings whilst making me look good.
8. Made a list of all persons (planners, strategists & media visionaries) we had harmed, and became willing to appease our relationships.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them but not our competitors others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through email and boozy lunches, to improve our conscious contact with God (the agency), praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to TV addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
