think horsies—an addendum

Like Josh, I too have been slowly making my way through the APG’s How to Plan Advertising. It is a fascinating read and is without a doubt a primer for anyone starting out in the discipline of planning, but time constraints and impending deadlines have made my progression through the book a crawl. Nonetheless, I found the doctor-physician analogy particularly interesting as well.

In addition to the list in Josh’s post, I would add a fourth parallel that, although not explicitly stated in the reading, does serve to strengthen the planner/physician analogy.

• Willingness/ability to adjust for the societal zeitgeist--or current trends of any particular era.

As Butterfield described, the roles of both the planner and the physician are constantly evolving. In the medical community there has been a shift from treating illness to preventing it, and proactive doctors—those willing to adjust with the trend—have had to invest considerable time and energy to stay on top of the latest innovations in the field. Obviously, this same standard applies to us. As social trends arise and technology expands at an ever-increasing rate, we must evolve along with the trends and adjust accordingly. The freshness of our ideas and our ability to engage in a dialog with the customer will be better for it.