NYTimes reports that advertising is emphasizing simplicity. How about we start with the products instead?
As any cell phone user, home buyer, college-bound high school senior can tell you, things can get complicated. The Times is reporting that advertisers have seized on that frustration by positioning their clients’ products as “simple.”
In one television commercial, a woman seated on an ING bench presses a button to get a cup of coffee, which is made for her by a rococo machine reminiscent of the confounding contraptions created by the artist Rube Goldberg.
“The world can be a complicated place,” a voiceover declares, “but when it comes to your money, ING is making it easier.”
ING tries to back up their claims with simpler financial planning:
Among the examples she listed were a variable annuity under the ING Simplicity name, which “streamlines a complicated financial product,” Ms. Conahan said; a diversified mutual fund, which “works almost like an index fund”; and a technology platform that helps financial advisers manage customers’ portfolios.
I’m disappointed, though. I don’t want advertisers and their clients to filter out options and still make me choose among the many still remaining. I want a company like ING to earn my trust, look over my portfolio, and come back to say, “Here, you’re all set. We picked the best plan for you.” I want them to do their jobs well.
It’s like picking a book to read. I get book reviews in my e-mail, personalized recommendations when I sign on to Amazon, and suggested readings from blogs and literary journals. But which books do I read first, even though those other ways are simple? The ones put in my hands by people I trust.
