What are we doing?

What exactly do we “do” in this business?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot these days,
the view from my couch
providing a bit more introspective inspiration
than the view from my fluorescent tinged desk at the office.

I think it used to be clear.

We helped our clients sell things.
We built brands.
We persuaded.

Now? I’m less sure.

We have more departments,
more channels,
more meetings.

But yet we’ve lost something:
Meaning.

So much of our work means nothing these days.
It simply fills the void for a brief moment in time,
until the next void comes along,
hungrier than the last.
Each effort to fill those voids,
ironically creating more emptiness.

And this becomes our culture.
A high-speed shouting match
of vacuous void fillers,
celebrating those who fill the most
with the least.

I once thought it was presumptuous
to believe that our work affected the culture
in any meaningful way.
But now, as our clamorous content spills out
over just about everything,
I can’t avoid that truth.

What we do matters.

So we should probably figure out
exactly what that “what” is.