Moths to Light Bulbs

Do new tactics risk losing one's direction?

Moths confuse light bulbs with the moon and hence lose their sense of direction.

In an article on new media Douglas Rozen makes a similar point about marketing when he asks 'when did "cool" become a marketing metric?' The point is that just because something is bright and shiny it doesn't necessarily make it relevant to marketers or consumers. He uses examples about consumer-generated content to make the point - sponsoring ads for the Super Bowl or MySpace/YouTube videos.

It's a difficult balancing act. Leveraging new channels, interaction mediums, cost structures, etc. will always be uncharted territory. Until some semblance of understanding can be reached let's thank those willing to experiment in a whole new laboratory. But there should always be a clear direction and objective.