Approach a random person in a supermarket, in a church, in a club. You get 5 seconds to make an impression. In that 5 seconds, you can be confident, funny, interesting, mysterious, compelling and win your target’s interest or you can be boring, uninspiring, awkward, boorish, stupid and lose your target’s interest, or every once in a while, you can offer just enough to not really engage nor disengage your target… ostensibly, this is limbo. Either way, it only means you’re not buried yet, and you still have an uphill battle to fight.Unfortunately, limbo is where most people end up. Fortunately, when you’re engaging with people on a personal basis, it’s a lot easier to make this ground up. Generally, people are willing to put in more effort and working it out and finding a common ground. Because the potential reward is high and relative barrier to engagement is low.Unfortunately, limbo is where most ads end up. Unfortunately, when you’re engaging with people on non-personal basis, it’s a lot more difficult to make this ground up. Generally, people are only willing to put in the effort to work it out if they have a directly vested interest – basically it’s like two mercenaries making a deal.I’m not saying anything insightful here. It’s basic. And I’m sure that everyone in the industry realizes this on a intellectual level.However something gets lost in translation in reality. If I’ve seen one shoe company ad with crazy CGI and an athlete doing unrealistic feats I’ve seen them all. If I’ve seen one aspirational credit card company ad I’ve seen them all (MasterCard’s initial campaign was brilliant and is still clearly the most resonant, but with Visa & Amex ripping off the tone, it maybe time for MC to change the game moving forwards). And if I’ve seen one pharmaceutical ad with more airtime devoted to reading the important safety information than the benefits of the drug itself, I’ve probably seen them all.This is pretty much akin to all the guys who approach the knockout dime lounging in the club with “Hi, my name is X. How are you?” “Thank you very much. Next!“Why advertisers would think it’d be any different in a situation where they have even less ability to calibrate to their target’s needs and desires? I don’t know. Some people just don’t get it.Like most marketers, I’m wary of tying sales and revenue metrics directly to marketing/advertising campaigns, but I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Perhaps instead of killing innovation, it’ll actually root out bland advertising for what it is – marginally impotent.