Too Many FUs

George Parker knows advertising. There’s no doubt about that. His column in the now defunct Marketing Computers magazine was a must read. Parker dissected campaigns from industry leading companies like HP, Dell and Intel, often pointing out the fallacy in their creative approach, business strategy or messaging.

It’s now obvious the kudos for the column belongs with the publication’s former editors, rather than the writer. That’s because Parker’s AdScam blog is a big time disappointment.

His astute assessment of the effectiveness of corporate and product advertising remains, as does his willingness to take on clients and agencies for missteps. However, a reader has to navigate a myriad of unnecessary curse words and vulgarity in an effort to find this valuable content.

It’s as if Parker has some unexplainable desire to transport his readers to the prison cell block, rather than providing a refreshingly candid and well written take on the state of advertising. (George Parker image, courtesy of AdScam)

I am certainly no prude when it comes to language. On the contrary, I’ve been known to drop an F-bomb on occasion in an internal meeting or client presentation. I use this type of language sparingly to emphasize a point or demonstrate passion about a particular topic.

There is a purpose though. All Parker accomplishes with his four-letter rants is to distract the reader and, in my case, to leave me wondering what the deal is with this guy.

I caught some flack last year from the t-shirt wearing Web 2.0 crowd for having the audacity to criticize a speaker for being inappropriately dressed at the Tower Club, a high end business venue in Tysons Corner.

I stand behind my position on that topic and it’s consistent with my assessment of the language in Parker’s blog. It is simply inappropriate in a professional environment.