Great piece. One way I’ve been expressing the culture point is that alongside Byron Sharp’s “physical and mental availability” brands need “cultural availability”; being culturally available is the most reliable route to mental availability. By the way I’m uncomfortable with the idea that “the best ads won’t look like ads.” In the narrow sense that they won’t look like TV ads, sure. But I think for social/ethical reasons our ads need to signal as clearly as possible that they are ads. I don’t have to tell you what a big problem it is for the world so many messages are able to efface their own origin and purpose; who is paying for them and why. What’s more, we should be making ads that we are proud to call ads, and proud to be associated with. Instead of escaping the ad business, let’s pull it out of the mediocrity spiral into which it has slipped.