In my ten years in advertising, I’ve helped sell health and wealth, college and knowledge, loans and phones, parts and charts, houses for spouses, flights and Web sites, crosses and sauces, tools and jewels and many other things that don’t happen to rhyme.

But I’ve never sold nothing.

What I mean is, I’ve never worked with a client who is so high up in the business stratosphere that there wasn’t a desperate need to focus their advertising on the benefits of their product or service because everyone on the planet already knows who they are and what they do.

Example: Nike. I’m trying to recall the last time I saw a Nike TV spot that pushed the supportiveness, comfort and athletic advantages their shoes provide. The ones I remember are built around superstar athletes (Michael Jordan), multi-talented superstar athletes (two-sport star Bo Jackson), freakish displays of talent by superstar athletes (Tiger Woods doing unbelievable tricks with his wedge and a golf ball), theme park rides conceptually based on the abilities of superstar athletes (The Michael Vick Experience), puppets of superstar athletes (2009’s Kobe Bryant and LeBron James spots, as well as the Li’l Penny spots from the ‘90s), and more. I think you get my drift. They’re entertaining spots, but even Spike Lee as iconic Nike spokesman Mars Blackmon would have to admit I’m right on this one — something is making Nike a ton of money, AND IT’S NOT THE SHOES.

Now obviously, these spots are selling “something”: awareness, brand image, the psychology of human experience. But those are all intangible things, not concrete features or benefits. And one could argue based on Nike’s continued success, that right now, those are actually more powerful motivators than the quality of the product itself. The question then becomes: Will there come a point when “ads for art’s sake,” or purely image-based advertising, won’t be enough for an industry leader like Nike to maintain their dominance?

My hunch is to say yes, and my reasoning is based on another titan of their respective industry, Bud Light. Entrenched in the upper tiers of the light beer market, Bud Light now has entire lines of TV advertising devoted solely to entertainment value. In one sense, their only challenge is making sure that the up-and-coming drinkers of the world remember that they exist when they’re getting their college friends to buy beer for them. Don’t believe me? Then I recommend you go back to this 2004 commercial that was the very first commercial shown during the Super Bowl that year:

At the same time, however, there are indicators that Bud Light does still feel a little bit of pressure from their competitors of the market. Hence, the launch of their “Drinkability” campaign, which is actually running parallel to their entertainment line of ads. According to their Web site, “Drinkability” is what separates them from other light beers, and represents ‘the perfect balance of flavor, filling and refreshment. It’s just the right taste the never fills you up and is easy going down.’ Perhaps I’m a little biased because I’m much more partial to microbrews, but that sure sounds like the alcoholic equivalent to rice cakes. (A little ironic, considering they actually use rice in the brewing of their beer.) Regardless it’s (to use a Bud Light adjective) refreshing to see the quality of their beer come front and center in their advertising once again.

It seems anti-climactic to say “Only time will tell whether a revolutionary shoe product will force Nike to bring the actual benefits of their shoes to the forefront of their advertising again,” but the reality is that only time will tell whether a revolutionary shoe product will force Nike to bring the actual benefits of their shoes to the forefront of their advertising again. In my experience, it’s the advertising that blends product benefits and creativity in a truly entertaining way that always seem to get the biggest praise from my friends and family who judge advertising from an outsider’s perspective. And while I don’t begrudge creatives who have the good fortune to be purveyors of “nothing,” I’m excited to see what happens when they have to start playing in a slightly smaller sandbox again.

When my wife and I had our oldest son, we spent a ton of time trying to figure out names, so as not to saddle him with some poorly thought-out albatross for the rest of his life. When it comes to living, breathing carbon-based entities, it’s not fair to try and be creative at all costs. But when it comes to a living, breathing digital entity, I have no such reservations.

Recently, I was tasked with naming our Armstrong|Shank agency blog — a project I was excited to do. The challenge in naming a company blog is finding a name that fits what you do and also creates an expectation for what the reader is about to experience. Now, if you’re a financial business, the direction seems simple: you want the name to say “We know money.” If you’re in the ag business, you want the name to say “We know farming, or ranching, or whatever.”

But what do you say when you’re in advertising, an industry whose split personality straddles the line between art and business? As one who spent a number of hours coming up with various name ideas, I’ve found it can be especially tough. Do you try and push your business expertise? Your creative expertise? Do you get arrogant and try to do both? Good question.

In my search, I was all over the landscape — marketing and advertising-related puns (“Ad Libs”), inspirational messages (“Insight that Incites”), esoteric creative concepts (“Crawlspace”), names related to our agency’s street address (“7450”) or pyramid-shaped logo (“Four-Point Perspective”) and so on. I asked for input from all over the building, which was both helpful … and not. More opinions meant more people to please, which wasn’t easy.

At one point, I took a new philosophy toward it. While this blog is meant to be many things — a gathering place for business professionals looking for insight, a resource for marketing expertise and a forum for creative expression — the one thing it has to be, due to its very nature as a blog, is free-flowing … not boring, stuffy business-speak.

I extended my name search into realm of the absurd. I tried to develop an expectation of creativity in the same way that a hard-rockin’, mind-blowin’ movie trailer psyches you up for the latest action flick. Names like “A Bullet Train from the Wind-swept Plains,” “Flight of the Magic Chicken Man,” and “Intergalactic Ferrari Force 5000” were born. I didn’t expect any of them to realistically make the cut — and boy oh boy, did they not make the cut — but I have to admit they still held a small place in my heart.

While the wacky detour didn’t produce an acceptable idea, it did help with the process of elimination. Regrouping, I went back to my drawing board to see where I’d been before. On second glance, one name stuck out to me. I presented it to Ed, my creative director, on the grounds that it was simple, appropriate to both the creative and business sides of our business, and it had potential for an interesting design. He agreed, it moved on to the big boss Susan, and now it sits at the top of this page.

If you mapped out my naming quest, it’d look like one of those Family Circus cartoons where Jeffy traipses in, over and around every square inch of the neighborhood. But at the end of the day, much like little Jeffy, I feel we ended up safe on the doorstep, with a blog name that fits to boot.