VIEWPOINT: Lighting a candle for a better future

<p>Have another 12 months passed already? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This time last year, a lot of us were secretly convinced the world was </p><p>going to end ... and then it didn't. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We proceeded into the new millennium with considerable relief that we'd </p><p>been given a "second chance", determined that we were going to do things </p><p>differently. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Have we? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Or - as is more likely - do we continue to make the same mistakes, take </p><p>the same shortcuts and fall into the same traps that we always did? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The biggest events of this year in terms of the industry has to be the </p><p>scandal over scam ads, and the dotcom implosion. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Once again, both demonstrated the best and the worst of all our </p><p>tendencies. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>On the plus side: scams allowed us to exhibit our creativity, our </p><p>passion, or commitment to the art of advertising ("art" in its purest </p><p>sense). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The dotcoms showed that despite the jaded cynicism that is typical of </p><p>our generation, we could still get excited and hopeful about the </p><p>potential and possibilities of a whole new medium. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>On the minus side: scamming revealed the greed and selfishness of the </p><p>industry, where some of us will do anything - at whatever cost - to win </p><p>shiny lumps of metal. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ditto for dotcoms, where hordes of people thronged for no apparent </p><p>reason other than that they were having buckets of money thrown at them, </p><p>with the promise of millions more to come. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>So what hope for the year 2001? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In an ideal world, these would be the priorities: </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Training and nurturing a long-term, sustainable talent pool; </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Doing good work for all clients, no matter how tough or restrictive </p><p>the brief is; </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Shunning hype and hyperbole in favour of simple truths; </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Growing the courage to admit mistakes; and </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Revelling in the freedom to say "I don't know", instead of claiming to </p><p>know it all. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Over to you. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>