Fifty years ago, consumers were fiercely loyal to products ranging from cars to colas. That loyalty was frequently baseless and often passed from one generation to the next. If I drove a Chevy, so would my offspring, and for years, the three U.S. automakers counted on it. When a variety of better-made, inexpensive imports arrived in the 1980s, GM, Ford, and Chrysler never saw them coming, because they never thought their customers would go elsewhere.

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Do you have a positive view of advertising? Do you think ads are honest and informative, or do you think that claims made in ads are exaggerated, inflated, or just plain untrue? Advertising often gets a bad rap, that can sometimes be deserved.

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Creativity vs. data, right brain vs. left brain—what should guide your advertising strategy?

Years ago, advertising was completely creative. The characters in Mad Men never discussed algorithms, biometrics, or clickstream analytics. They discussed ideas, conveyed through words and graphics.

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