Advertising in an Age of Snackable Value: A Ride-Share Reality Check
The advertising industry is in crisis, and it’s one of its own making—or so it seems at first glance.
Somewhere along the way, the value of creativity—the engine of the entire enterprise—was traded for efficiency, commoditization, and a fixation on “snackable” outputs. But this shift wasn’t born of a foolish choice; it was a reaction to deeper pressures.
When remuneration models began to erode and fees were relentlessly driven down, agencies were forced to prioritize efficiency to survive. The arrival of digital and social media only worsened the situation, inflating workloads and putting unsustainable pressure on creatives. Efficiency wasn’t a strategic decision; it was a survival tactic.
Now, the latest chapter in this devaluation is being written, with AI expected to make everything instant, cheap, and frictionless. The comparisons to ride-sharing services like Uber are as apt as they are alarming: just as we now think of a car not as a marvel of engineering and design, but as a means to a 30-minute trip to the airport, so too are businesses beginning to view advertising as nothing more than the sum of its lowest-cost parts.
The Uberfication of Advertising
Think of it this way: when you pay for an Uber ride, the price reflects only the immediate service rendered. The experience, the cost of the car itself, the decades of innovation from the automaker, and the brand value behind the vehicle are reduced to irrelevance. In advertising, this mindset is creeping into boardrooms, where marketing budgets are being allocated based on the belief that campaigns should cost no more than their "30-minute ride" equivalent.
This attitude ignores the foundational truth of advertising: the work matters. Ideas, strategy, and execution are not interchangeable cogs. They are the product of talent, time, and expertise. Just as a car is more than the ride it provides, an ad is more than the fleeting moment it occupies on a screen.
AI: A Tool, Not a Savior
The rise of AI has only exacerbated this commoditization. Many leaders now see it as the ultimate cost-cutting tool, imagining a future where algorithms churn out campaigns faster, cheaper, and better than humans ever could. But the idea that AI can instantly replicate the deep thinking, emotional resonance, and cultural nuance that great advertising requires is a dangerous fallacy.
AI can assist, amplify, and optimize, but it cannot create in the human sense. It cannot replace the strategic foresight, narrative craft, or ethical judgment of experienced creatives. Yet businesses increasingly bet on AI to do just that, slashing budgets and timelines with the misguided expectation that machines can deliver what people no longer will.
The Real Cost of Devaluation
The consequences of this mindset are profound. By reducing advertising to snackable, commoditized outputs, brands are undercutting the very foundations of their long-term value. Creativity becomes an afterthought, quality suffers, and audiences disengage. The work stops being memorable, and the brand suffers as a result.
What’s worse, the relentless push for efficiency only deepens the cycle. As workloads balloon and resources shrink, creatives are stretched thinner and thinner, leaving little room for the kind of bold, innovative thinking that sets brands apart. This is not efficiency—it’s exhaustion masquerading as progress.
Moving Beyond the Ride-Share Mentality
Just as a car is more than a ride, a campaign is more than its delivery mechanism. Brands must invest in advertising not as a transactional expense, but as a long-term asset. AI can be a powerful tool in this process, but only when it’s used to enhance human creativity, not replace it.
The ride-share mentality has its place in the gig economy, but not in the world of advertising. Efficiency may have been a reaction to market forces, but the industry has a choice now: double down on this race to the bottom, or reclaim the value of creativity. If it continues down this path, it risks losing the very value it was built upon. And once that happens, no algorithm will be able to fix it.
It’s time to put the work back in the driver’s seat.