Words, pictures, drawings, sketches, slogans, one-liners — Art & Copy; Things creative people produced to make traditional advertising famous, lead by creative teams consisting of Art Directors and Copywriters (you know, teams like Don, Sal and Peggy).

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WITH THIS NEW THING CALLED THE INTERNET, ADVERTISING HAS GONE DIGITAL. AND DIGITAL IS DIFFERENT THAN NOT-DIGITAL.

HTML, DHTML, jQuery, Javascript, Flash, PHP, mySQL, Actionscript, ASP, JSP, CSS, wireframes, user flows, site maps, words, pictures, drawings, sketches, motion graphics, vector graphics, slogans, one-liners, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare.

Given that it takes a collective group of people and knowledge (of all or a combination the crap listed above) to get anything done in the digital world, Don, Sal and Peggy are no longer sufficient resources.

So how is it that ‘digital agencies’ are still functioning on the model of ancient agency hierarchy, with traditional art directors and copywriters heavily dictating the outcome of things they themselves, have very low to moderate insight into?

A good friend of mine sent some words over instant message today that inspired this blog post and really put things into perspective:

if you were working at a Burger King, the manager would know how all of the machines work. They would know how to turn on the fry maker and make fries. They would know how to run the register, etc. (Not to say that they *do* any of those things, but they understand what all goes into that finished hamburger).

it’s this understanding that helps the team run and also helps them frame their requests.

if you have no idea how the place runs, then to you, it’s not such a big deal to suddenly start selling chicken sandwiches..i mean, we’re still ‘generally’ talking about sandwiches, right? Sure. But, what tends to happen instead, is that someone decides that they like the way KFC does something. So now..THIS Burger King, is a KFC.

FINE. But, it becomes a problem when the manger starts going around telling all the customers that they’re gonna get chicken sandwiches on tuesday, and then fails to inform the staff until the monday before, that they have to suddenly make this happen, with only a half-baked idea to work with.

If you don’t know how the chicken sandwich is made, you should confer with the staff first, cause they can help you create this new thing.

So taking a step back, is it time to open up exclusive creative team enrollment to other creative minded worker bee-folk? Or should there be pre-requisite courses for Art Directors and Copywriters that include classes like Facebook 101, intro to Flash and Programming for Beginners?

Will user experience designers, flash animators or social media strategists eventually be given the opportunity to become creative directors?

I think so. After all, it’s about good ideas and flexible thinking, right? Who’s to say that great ideas are limited to art and copy. It’s not 1963 anymore; technology is advancing and should inspire creativity….. but it’s hard to think possibilities if you don’t know the capabilities.