Advertising, under extreme delusions.

The current issue of Fast Company has a piece entitled, Advertising, Under Review. The lead-in suggests a questioning of what's wrong with advertising today and if it's losing its relevance, but the "answers" are laughable grasps from ad execs (and a big-company execs) trying desperately to justify their relevance in a world that is changing into something they no longer rule. Choice quotes include:

• Advertising is not less important; it's just that other communications tools are becoming more important.
  
• Advertising has a critical role: It tells a story in such a way that a product becomes totally relevant to people's lives.
  
• The ad industry isn't struggling for a new set of principles or abandoning the ones that made it great from the start. It's simply in the midst of a business cycle. I don't think it's more profound than that.
  
• I would argue that advertising has never been more relevant.

Whether big advertising is losing its relevance is an interesting question, and it may have been insightful to get the "insiders" opinions juxtaposed beside some critical thought from, say, Doc, or someone else who may have a different opinion. Instead, this is a fluff piece written by ad agency PR people, worthless accept for the humor factor. C'mon, Fast Company, have some guts. Oh wait, I guess you need to believe it just as much as these guys.