Five months later the beverage giant whose ad campaigns bespeak America around the globe had yet to produce a new message for its flagship soda and the world.

What was there to say?

That's a question in many ways still unanswered by an advertising community trying to fathom and reflect a world that is very different now than it was only a year ago.

General Motors was criticized for its “Keep America Rolling” TV ads that equated interest-free financing with American freedom. The animal rights group PETA ran a print ad that showed a buxom woman dressed like Uncle Sam, but with cleavage, under the headline: “ I Want YOU to Go Vegetarian!”

But it is an ad hanging in the window of a Greenwich Village fetish fashion store that best sums up the sense of patriotism, defiance and conflicted sensibilities that pervaded advertising for the first few weeks after the attack. It read: “Everything The Taliban Hates About American Culture. ”

"For many, many people, the amount of stuff they have is literally falling out the door. People don't want more stuff. They want something more in their lives. They want and crave new satisfactions."

-- Yankelovich MONITOR

He's also the author of “The End of Marketing As We Know It, ” (HarperCollins) and the forthcoming “ The End of Advertising As We Know It. ” Zyman says the “big burst” of patriotism that America felt and that advertising immediately reflected after the attack belied a fundamental change in the country.

America lost “constancy” he said. Constancy established and in place since the end of World War II. “ We take for granted things will be a certain way, ” says Zyman. “ A can opener will open a can. The 7 o’clock news comes on at 7 o'clock. In other countries, the 7 o'clock news might come on at 7:15. ”

One of the first things Atlanta advertising agency WestWayne did after the attack was take down an outdoor advertisement in New York City for client Russell Athletic that suddenly seemed in poor taste. The ad depicted a T-shirt with the line, “ Yes, New York, It Also Comes In Black. ”

Andrew Jones, Chief Strategy Officer of WestWayne – whose clients also include Publix Super Markets, Denny's, and Toyota dealerships – decided the agency needed to get a fix on the country's mood before it began formulating more ads, and the best way to do that was in person, informally.

In early October, he and several WestWayne executives rented an RV and took a two week swing up the East Coast, from Florida to Virginia, asking the same question - “What's on your mind?” – in oddball ways, such as: “ If you could morph into any animal, what animal would it be, and why?”

The trip took them to college campuses, diners and auto plants, and debunked a few theories the researchers had when they pulled out of the drive in Atlanta, chief among them – judging from press coverage – that Americans were paralyzed with fear.

“We were surprised there wasn't as much of a bunker mentality as we had imagined, ” said Jones.

“People were showing a degree of confidence when we asked them questions such as, what would you do if you had $100, 000 today? They didn't all want to save it. ”

The researchers also learned that the changes in the economy, the recession, and the dotcom busts, had “a bigger influence on people’s attitude than the fact that there was this huge atrocity and intrusion where the United States was attacked on its own soil, ” says Jones.

“ We were surprised to find that the process of grieving was over relatively quickly. ” A Yankelovich MONITOR survey in October reflected similar findings for marketers to parse and distill into new strategies. Americans, said Yankelovich (www. yankelovich. com), have grown “tired of hype – they want something real and authentic. ”The researchers said the “consumer smarts” Americans had developed during the boom of the 1990s would now be applied to “break away from past agendas and set new ones with new priorities. ”

The attack only accelerated moods that had already been set in motion, said Yankelovich: “For many, many people, the amount of stuff they have is literally falling out the door. People don't want more stuff. They want something more in their lives. They want and crave new satisfactions. ”

Atlanta Designer Critt Graham of Critt Graham & Associates says he sees the mood shift in the more subtle colors companies are using in their annual reports. “Before the attack, annual reports were big and splashy, ” he says. “Now they're smaller with less color and less photography. It's a reflection of mood and also the downturn in business. ”

One thing you'll see a lot less of in forthcoming annual reports are executives in shortsleeve shirts “looking like they're ready to rock 'n roll, ”says Graham. “They're wearing suits now. Looking more conservative and straightforward. People just want to look like they're taking care of business.”

Mark Cohen, Associate Creative Director of Atlanta advertising agency baylesscronin, says he's not certain client Jefferson Pilot Financial Service would use the same line “Financial Freedom. It Has Its Advantages,” if the agency were creating the campaign today, but probably so.

The ad was never about “making enough money to buy five Porches and three mansions,” he says. “It was about not being beholden to anybody. About making your future secure so you can have the freedom to do what matters to you. ”

Still, he says, the attack has given pause to advertisers who had become “kind of guilty of gratuitous violence in ads, for comedy's sake. I don't think now if you need humor you're going to have a guy fall out of a tree now. As a writer you're going to think: 'Let's find another way to convey that. '”

Former Atlanta adman turned thinker-for-hire, Joey Reiman, takes the extreme view that advertisers are ill equipped to address changing values. Reiman's company, Brighthouse, advises clients including The Coca-Cola Company and Delta Air Lines.

“The advertising industry is a producer of mirrors, ” he says. “ The best ads merely reflect the best and worst of society. Rarely does an ad provide vision. . . Ads only subtract from the real issue. That is, the new path: one of responsibility to ourselves, our families, our neighbors, the world, and what the world could become.” In Reiman's mind, “Business can't know what to say if society is at a loss for words. ”

Kristin Cowart, a Partner in Atlanta-based KC Public Relations, says that in the lower-gloss world of public relations the impact of Sept. 11 has been profound and has reshaped strategies for clients ranging from Lenox Square, to Raffles International Hotels & Resorts, to Vespa scooters.

“With our hotel properties we have placed a huge emphasis on being our guests' home away from home, ” she says. The agency's programs to comfort travelers include giving hotel guests box lunches to see them through long airport waits and “expanded spa options for stressed-out travelers. ”

Cowart said her agency has encouraged clients to “give back to get back” and to become involved with charities. Client 99X, an Atlanta radio station, as a result has an on air “moment of silence” on the 11th of every month; and every month Vespa Atlanta gives away a scooter to help raise money for a local charity.

None dispute that the attack – and the compounding effects of recession and the failures of the “new economy” of dotcoms (last year more than 500 perished, according to Webmergers. com) – has for the moment changed the tenor of America.

“ It's not the time for Wassup ads, ” says Atlanta marketing consultant Al Ries, a Partner in Ries & Ries. “There's a more serious aspect to life in general and advertising is nothing but a reflection of life, so, naturally it's going to be more serious. ” But will it be more effective? He doubts that. He says the medium itself is steadily losing efficacy, and that was accelerated by the narcissistic ads for dotcom clients.

Ries alludes to the sock-puppet created as part of the pet.com’s ad campaign. “(It) did more damage to the reputation of advertising than we will ever know, ” he says. “They spent $60 million on that campaign and what did it get them except the company went bankrupt. ”

One trend that may be emerging in the wake of Sept. 11 is the growing clout of public relations in launching and establishing brands. Starbucks, for instance, built its brand by spending only $10 million on advertising in 10 years. “And it's probably in the same brand recognition category now of McDonald's, ” says Ries. “And McDonald's spends $500 million a year on advertising. ”

American's consumption of media – TV, radio, internet and newspaper/magazines – has surged since Sept. 11, says consultant Zyman, whose company conducted two surveys in the weeks afterward. According to Zyman's figures, the number of hours Americans spent with the news in all forms tripled from September to November, from about 10 hours a week to about 30. “ The press is more relevant than ever, ” he says.

Advertisers’ fitful attempts to get a fix on the morphing behavior – if it is indeed morphing – of consumers was evident during the Super Bowl, the annual showcase for the ad industry. As an economic indicator, Fox didn't sell out its inventory until two days before the game. That's the first time in the more than three-decade history of the spectacle that ad rates have declined two years in a row.

The tone of commercials, generally, was less frivolous than years previous. But the somberness and flag-waving of post 9/11 – “consumerism as patriotism,” in Zyman's words – had mostly abated: a Blockbuster spot featured dancing pets; an AT&T commercial offered a close-up of belly buttons.

The most overt flag-tugger was a Monster. com ad that featured former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani thanking the country for its support. All further evidence, as Richard Feinberg would argue, that things are getting back to pre-War normal.

Feinberg, the head of Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality, says the short-lived effects of Sept. 11 are already behind us. Companies are making the mistake of “listening to experts who say things have changed - but they aren't really good at explaining exactly how. ”

Cutting back or suspended advertising as a result of the recession and Sept. 11 is “cyclical thinking, ” he says. “ You cut advertising because consumers have cut spending, but maybe consumers have cut spending because you've cut advertising. How do you know which comes first?”

The President himself, even while riding historically high 90 percent-plus approval ratings, seems to be casting about to get an exact fix on the country. In his State of the Union message the week before the Super Bowl, he declared that the country's credo in its war with terrorism and the recession is “ Let's Roll. ”

A week later, in a speech at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, he talked about a new America where people are responsible for the decisions they make. This “ Responsibility Culture, ” as he termed it (and with a nod to the Enron debacle), applies to corporations as well as individuals.

Consultant Zyman says the mood of the country is somewhere between the headlong “Let's Roll” and the deliberateness implied in a “Responsibility Culture. ” He's not exactly sure what that mood is. He's fairly sure what it's not.

“I don't think,” says Zyman, “it's still he who dies with the most toys wins.”

The urge for the most toys has been replaced by the urge for the right toys. “ The consumer wants to know 'Will this make my life better'?, ” says Zyman. “It had better make my life better is what they are thinking, because, you know what? Life is already too short. ”

Consumers, he says, are more apt to ask utilitarian questions before buying than they were a year ago, even though these attitudes began emerging before the war. He calls consumers’ intensified interest in product attributes “flight to value. ”

According to Zyman, this is what is running through consumers’ mind these days:

Back to the top.


In this environment, the emphasis for advertisers is on copy points and selling. Every advertising dollar has to carry its weight. Zyman has been preaching that David Ogilvy message for years. Now, he says, it's even more important that companies and advertisers “go out and sell your product, instead of trying to entertain people. ”

Andrew Jones, of WestWayne, calls this emerging need for glitzless advertising “ Brand Fundamentalism. ” What that means for companies is their products must “exceed expectations . . . stand for something.” Resist the temptation to cut costs by taking “some chocolate out of the filling – consumers will find you out. ”

More human reaction.

“ Regular guy” brands. No more “ rebels” or “ explorers. ”

Burn back to one adjective to describe your brand: Volvo = safe; Porsche = Fast; Jeep = Rugged.

Mark Cohen, of baylesscronin, jokes that, since the attack, he has seen fewer storyboards using “terrorists flying into officer towers” to get viewers' attention. He says he – like much of the advertising community – is uncertain Americans have gone headlong back to family and so-called “ core values. ”

“ I think when this all blows over, and I think it will blow over, we’ll be going back to entertaining people again to get their attention, and selling the product, ” he says. “ But don't think we'll go back to the dotcom craze when young people were running companies and advertisers were shooting gerbils out of cannons. ”

Those “grandiose” days of throwing money around are over. He pauses: “Boy, do I miss them.”