History repeats itself you know

Ramsey Naja is chief creative officer at JWT MEA

“Under promise and over deliver” they always told me. You might yawn every time you hear that old cliché, which suggests that history repeats itself, but, sorry, history repeats itself. And nowhere does it repeat itself more often than in advertising. Look at all the so-called new media: you still have redemption, but digitally, not with cut-out coupons. Permission marketing allows you access to free content, on condition of watching ads – just like traditional television always did, and we still marvel at the fact that literature contains books with multiple endings – and which were just as rubbish as today’s interactive variety.

But