This being the Jewish Day of Atonement, it seems only appropriate to start with the confessions right from the top. Including The Reductionist’s secret fantasy about channeling the immortal Frank Costanza and rebranding the whole thing as “the day of evening scores and setting records straight.” In that spirit, and while I pause to ponder the probability of a lightning bolt arriving from on high in the next few seconds, I did want to share a few, well, call them rueful reflections on a few of my more or less egregious errors of judgement in 5780/81 (if you happen to follow the Hebrew calendar).

Unoriginal sin: Thanks to a new and utterly unscientific study, yours truly must express sincere regrets for ardently exclaiming that the advertising crap-to-good ratio has exploded in the last 20 years. Instead, it’s remained unchanged at the standard 80% (crap)-18% (good)-2% (great) Pareto proportion.  What’s different is the number of surfaces it now stinks up.

A thorn is a thorn: In a recent ad trade article, one of the tribe formerly known as “influencers” lectured the audience that, henceforth, s/he/ze/per would be known as “creators.” This, we are told, is to avoid the stigma of being labeled alongside people with internet followings who shill products just for the bucks. The Reductionist admits to reading this with a far less than charitable eye.

True confession: Every time I get an invitation from an influencer, oops, creator, to “post your collab,” I/me/him/his has felt the urge to use atonement-worthy language. Feel much better now that we’re hiring a “creator” who’s “all about creativity.” Actual training and experience are so 2019.  Sorry about that, too.

Back to biz: Moving to the mundane, nothing more than a few hundred billion in play, US advertisers spent $151.290B on digital media in 2020 vs. $107B on traditional. This makes total sense since studies tend to show that about 82% of digital ads are ignored vs. a rounded average of 37% for the other. Apologies for previous doubts.

I blog, therefore, it be: If you track the advertising blogosphere as I do—another thing to be sorry for—you’d be 100% confident that the vast universe of consumers will joyfully fork over cash to avoid advertising. Unless, based on new data, they’re watching the bills that come with stacking up streaming subscriptions. In that case, 87% say they’re good with some or even a lot of advertising in exchange for “free.” Speaking for all ad pundits: forgive us.

More prematurity: In fact, despite starting to think the profusion of predictions about TV’s demise might have a point, I’ve recent found out the damn medium persists in increasing ad effectiveness by 40%; with a 70% likelihood of a profitable ROI between 3 and 6 months. Head bowed on that one, too.

Missed it by that much: Speaking of sins of omission, one of the biggest, and yet least covered media stories of the past year was the failure of the Facebook boycott by major brands to yield much more than a short-term share price dip and a few editorial adjustments. Here’s to accepting a share of the blame for not spotting what that says about industry tectonics a lot sooner.

Different church, different pew: Last, but far from least, for years, I’ve firmly believed, even made bar bets, over the assertion that Coca Cola produced the first image of Santa Claus as part of its advertising in 1931. In fact, I now discover they were beaten to the punch by Frank Nash in 1904.  Bitter herbs.

And with that, a hearty “good yontif, pontiff” to you:  Which, as I’m sure you know, is what the rabbi always says to the pope this time of year. Please accept all of the above along with a pillar of salt and a promise to start racking up more interesting things to atone for in 5782, forthwith.