Watching the Superbowl and wondering about how agency subculture effects advertising.

As anyone who has ever worked in advertising can tell you, agencies are a unique place to work. What influences people in the agency are influences that get into the ads they create. There are few places where the broader social and cultural realities (of the people themselves) effect the type of work they produce. In general, advertising reflects current cultural indicators but seen through the "lense" of the people generating them. We talk about our audience, first and secondary as our targets. But in many cases, what amuses us, our surroundings and our peers ends up influencing the end product and hopefully our audience. Understanding advertising is to get a glimpse into the lives of the people who produce the advertising. So as we watch this superbowl (or rather the ads) think about the influence the people at the agency had on the advertising.

Online Media Daily reports that two companies will be keeping a close watch to see which adds create a buzz by watching internet traffic on the message boards (forums) to hear the after superbowl ad buzz.

While we're on the topic of influences, Mediathink has an interesting page on the relationship between music and branding.