Tony Accurso, general manager of JWT Atlanta, likens the industry today to an insensitive jerk in a bar trying to pick up women. And he says what the industry needs is a personality transplant.

"The ad industry is like that guy in a bar trying to pick up a woman. He thinks he's doing well. He's got the snappy lines and the funny jokes but she's hearing, 'Blah, blah, blah.' The truth is she has better things to do with her time than sit there and listen to him pontificate." Accurso says that just like his example, the ad industry is competing in similar situations. "We're competing with peoples' time and how they want to spend it. It's the new currency. Instead of liposuction or hair plugs, I'd go for sensitivity training. Learn to listen. Make good eye contact. Have a dialogue instead of a one-way conversation. He'll keep her attention longer," he says.

Tina Louise Chadwick, creative director with MATCH Inc. in Midtown, agrees that agencies need to cut the crap. "I'd put in a truth-o-meter so that no one could try to sell a campaign that didn't answer the client's needs without a big foam mallet coming out and bonking the presenter," she posits.

On another note, if Chadwick ran the big advertising show in the sky, she would see to it that the industry became more responsible in a number of ways. She foresees that the firms that will rise above the pack in years to come will be those that know how to be stringently honest and responsible with budgets. And on an environmental front, Chadwick adds, "I would love for the industry to remember that we have a big impact on the mental and visual landscape of where we live," she says. "Take care of it. Improve it."

Ron Huey, president and creative director of Atlanta-based Huey+Partners Advertising would be on the same page with Chadwick on some issues if the ad world were his. "There's too much ad pollution out there already," Huey claims. "Agencies and clients should have to pay a fine for producing and running bad advertising." Here are some of Huey's suggested fines for various infractions:

If Gerry Rubin were the Czar of advertising, rather than president and CEO of Rubin Postaer and Associates based in Santa Monica, Calif., he would insist that the product or service entrusted to agencies truly and demonstrably provide a customer benefit, "versus charging the advertising with creating a false sense of efficacy." Rubin also says the industry should refer and reach out to customers and not consumers. His reasoning: "Consumers are people who digest something. Customers are people who buy what a manufacturer creates [or] designs."

Rubin would also have clients pick their own agencies, using their own judgment or intuition as opposed to third-party consultants. In addition, Rubin says he would have client organizations "place unequivocal responsibility for creative effectiveness upon a marketing-driven individual," leaving out R&D, financial and other people when it comes to the advertising approval process.

Kent Matlock, president and CEO of Midtown's Matlock Advertising & Public Relations, wants to see more diverse agency management. "I would like to see more women and minorities in the senior ranks of the advertising industry," he says. Matlock says it's important for agency clients to target groups such as women and minorities and that the most effective way to do this is to have people in management who know their lifestyles intimately to help ensure that clients are intelligent marketers.

Creativity, too, is a factor that Matlock would put a higher importance on in his perfect world. "Creativity requires a high level of positive energy to maintain," he says. "We must find a way to ignite people's passion. There are too many talented individuals who have been in the industry for so long that they no longer give a damn."

Then some execs say making expanded use of new media would be the ticket in their perfect advertising world. Wade Forst, president of Inman Park, Atlanta-based Think Monster, says, "I would push for more innovation within traditional advertising and strive to educate firms and clients on the rewards within the online channel Ð specifically integrated campaigns." Forst reports that adults currently average 14% of their weekly media-consumption hours on the internet. "For the most part, the online medium is being under-utilized," he adds.

Forst envisions a world where advertising campaigns would consist of one-to-one personalized communications. "Advertising would no longer be viewed as intrusive, and the communication would be looked at as pertinent content with true intent," he explains. Forst predicts that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will be viewed as the gatekeepers of this new relevant advertising content.

Some executives, such as Patrick Scullin, creative mercenary and adman at Atlanta-based Ames Scullin O'Haire Advertising, finds the biggest changes he'd make right inside agency doors. "I'd like to bring some fun back to this business," Scullin says. "Goodness, we're a sorry bunch these days."

Scullin also says he'd restore dignity and optimism to the profession as a whole. "I'd stop saying TV is dead, radio is dead, newspapers are dead. What's dead are boring ads Ñ in whatever media. A sucky slick video sent to a video iPod is still a sucky ad. Who cares about the medium if the message is bad?"

In the vein of what happens inside the agency, Rob Farinella, president of Atlanta's West End-based Blue Sky Agency, says he'd change the way agencies work. "Create a four-day work week. Ad people are working harder and are more stressed than ever. But with a little extra time off comes a better quality of life, clear heads, and smart fresh thinking that drive successful campaigns," Farinella says.