Waiting for commercial breaks to end is old news, of course. But what struck me was this desperate attempt to entertain. Granted, the advertisers tried to fit the tenor of the shows I was watching – funny, irreverent, edgy. But I could still feel the desperation and anxiety in these spots, and especially the spots by Quiznos – a company that has committed such heinous acts of misguided advertising that somebody should write a book chronicling the damage they have inflicted on hapless TV viewers (with spongmonkeys taking the top prize).

Ad agencies have been trying to entertain for years, but ever since the BMW Films “The Hire” series of sponsored-content shorts back in the early 2000s, the ad industry and their clients have upped the ante in trying to entertain. And they’re all still pissing down their collective leg.

Here’s the problem. For decades, people thought advertising and branding were synonymous  …  which couldn’t be further from the truth. Branding is the big picture, the raison d’etre for companies; advertising is just a mouthpiece, a one-way bullhorn, the showoff who tries to one-up everybody else by being louder, brighter, more clever, more stylish. Long ago ads were successful in reaching a larger audience, but in the intervening years they have not proven themselves as a viable way of building a brand. That’s because people simply don’t trust advertising anymore. Again, old news.

So what’s a company to do? I’ll travel back to my frat boy days for an analogy. There was this alumni (who will remain nameless) who always came back for Alumni Weekend and drank himself in to such a blinding bender that he pissed himself every weekend. It was like clockwork. Once he even wandered into my room and passed out on my loft before, of course, passing out and pissing down his own pantleg. I’d recommend to any companies – small or large – to do what this young man couldn’t – abstain. Act as if advertising weren’t an alternative. Act as if it doesn’t even exist. Then start to figure out how you can build your brand without it. You may have the DTs for a while, but you’ll thank me later, because it will force you to explore how you can grow your brand through creating things of value, through creating conversations, through developing tools and ideas that people will want to talk about and share with each other.