Why Does Retail Advertising Suck?

Summary: There’s a healthy debate being waged on one of the many industry discussion boards I monitor. The gist is: Why does retail advertising have to suck? It’s a question worth asking, particularly if you are an enabler of the aforementioned sucking. It’s okay. Most of us have dropped a steamer or two in our time, but we have been ashamed of it when forced to do it. We quickly looked for ways to, as Luke Sullivan says, “suck less” on our next project.
But retail advertising actually seems to reward sucking.