PixVox

Caustic relationships between Advertising and PR folk date back to the earliest days of modern truth stretching. So, all cards up. I’m an Ad Guy. And I admit, I’ve met some fairly interesting PR wonks over the years. None that I’d take home to meet the family, but good sorts. They snort in our direction about lack of discipline. We return the favor with jabs about tassels and wingtips. The truth of who squeezes truth most effectively may reside somewhere firmly in between the two. But neither is without its baggage. The ad industry is bloated and self-indulgent. The PR world is just a drag. But there may be one thing both groups agree on. Social networking and the rapid growth of the web is a real threat to our livelihood. The gig is almost up boys and girls. Speak with any group of twenty somethings and you’ll find a level of cynicism unmatched in modern times. As they Twitter, Digg, Poke and Tap their way to a new kind of community, there is a deep disrespect and almost fervent disdain for practitioners of the subtle art of truth twist. To this generation, an insincere offer, unsubstantiated claim or bloated statistic smells like week old Thai in the glove box. They’ve heard it all and call bullshit at lightning speed.

At the recent Start Conference in San Francisco, I saw the future of truth mining in action. It was the best social experiment I’ve witnessed in years. As Dot Com wizard after VC genius graced the stage, I stayed glued to Twitter on my iPhone. Words of advice rolled forth from the stage. And instantly, responses were published to the web. The pace at which shots were called was blistering. Some were on the mark. Others were over the top. A few were not kind. But all were there for instant review.

Some of this is not new. The blogosphere has been a petrie dish of opinion for years. But the speed that social networking is growing is matched only by the pace that it moves opinions and analysis. Not today, or tomorrow, but soon the gig may be up. The ability of the current crop of truth squeezers to stay ahead of the tappers may end. Some new, more sophisticated, group of twisters will emerge. PR folk will return to dreams of being novelists and Ad Guys will return to just dreaming.