The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Looks like that old saw is even true for the advertising/marketing business, which is supposed to be all about change. In fact, when you really analyze it closely, the core of what we do and how we act in this marketing business of ours has not really changed all that much over the years.

That fact was made abundantly clear to me last evening as I switched on TCM to watch the penultimate movie of the ad biz, "The Hucksters." The 1947 classic starring Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr (her first American film) examines the advertising agency and marketing industry in the go-go years just after the war, when radio was king and marketers were learning how to clog this new medium with mindless commercials. (But, depressingly, no more mindless than what you see on a typical broadcast today.)

The tortured relationship between the agency and client, the deep questions on the morality and efficacy of advertising, and the questionable values of the marketing business, are all major themes of "The Hucksters." See what I mean, not much has really changed.

Interestingly, "The Hucksters" takes place some 14 tumultuous years prior to the start of the "Golden Age" of Hucksterism, the 1960s, which has been so brilliantly captured in the AMC series "Mad Men." Ironically, as I write this, the third season of "Mad Men" kicks off this evening, with the Hucksters of the Sterling Cooper ad agency back to their cigarettes, Martini’s and skinny ties, dreading the massive societal changes that are bubbling just below the surface. The NY Times Frank Rich wrote a brilliant commentary for today’s paper, examining why and how "Mad Men" is so poignantly resonant with today’s culture, also teetering on the precipice of wrenching change.

Beyond the original "Hucksters" film and "Mad Men," I believe we are now experincing the rise of what I call the New Hucksters. These are the ad industry pros who promote — and frequently over-promote — the value of the new digital marketing capabilities to cure all that ails marketers and their unending desires to sell more to more people, more profitably.

These new digital marketing Hucksters will say almost anything to win their technology driven point and attract new converts to their digital and social media religion. Indeed, this New Hucksterism of digital marketing has almost become like a religion to many of these modern day Elmer Gantry’s. They preach online to their devoted congregations on Twitter, and espouse their holy digital principles sermons at their mega church meetings such as the Ad Tech Conference.

Of course, if you’ve read this blog in the past, you’d probably include me in that group of New Hucksters. Guilty as charged, for the most part. But, I even question my digital orthodoxy sometime. The fact is, that digital and social media are just new channels and tactical approaches for marketing. They don’t replace strategy.

But, I digress.  Back to the movie "The Hucksters." I love how the film highlights the industry archetypes that have barely changed in the 62 years since the movie came out. For example:

• The Meddling Client — Who tries to tell his ad agency what to do at every turn, expecting everyone to kiss his ring finger ever time he enters a room.
• The Cowed Agency President – Who will do anything and everything to keep that difficult, but profitable, client happy and in the fold. This is where the ethical challenges come into play.
• The Obsequious In-House Marketing Director — In the movie, she is just a hand-servant to the powerful client (in this case, the owner/president of the Beautee Soap Company, played brilliantly in the film by a rotund Sidney Greenstreet). She says yes to everything her boss says, and delights in beating up on the agency execs.
• The Defeated Account Executive — He is popping antacids like candy as he snivels about the latest indignity bestowed by the tyrannical client. This account guy is beyond defeated. He is barely holding on for life.
• The Heroic Account Director — He’s the hero of the tale (beautifully and surprisingly subtly played by Clark Gable). The guy who clearly sees the glaring faults of the ad business and wants to change it, but he is still the classic Huckster, willing to say and do anything to get the sale.
• The Harried Copywriters — In the movie, these creative types are represented by two classically sharp Hollywood script writers who join up with the Gable account guy to save the day by writing a new comedy show to be sponsored by Beautee Soap.
• The Clueless Talent – A hilarious Keenan Wynn who plays Buddy Hare, a talentless comic just up from the strip club circuit, telling the stalest jokes on the planet. But, the Beautee Soap president wants him for a new show, so the ad agency dutifully complies.
   

I could go on, but you get the picture. The old "Hucksters" may be a classic. But, classics always come back in style if you wait long enough. The New Hucksters of our current advertising and marketing business are not all that far off from the cast of characters in this moldy, but incredibly entertaining, movie.

Given that state of affairs of our industry, I am not sure whether to laugh or cry.

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