To be supremely kind, most advertising is forgettable. The big boys overcome  mediocrity with massive media dollars. Force-feeding the populace is their game and they play it well, much as an army wears down the enemy with waves of infantry. But the majority of business owners don’t have multi-million dollar ad budgets. Their challenge is to create compelling messages, to gain attention amid the noise and the clutter, to somehow be noticed, believed and bought. Well, here’s a flash — it just ain’t happening out there, folks — very, very seldom. Memorable work rarely sees the light of day. Who’s to blame? Ad agencies, about 20 percent of the time. The rest of the fault lies with company management that routinely commit two deadly sins — either they play it safe and avoid risk, or they beg for attention by being different, just for different sake.  For marketers and their masters, making a mistake is unacceptable; so they steer clear of the edge and the pitfalls which lurk there. In the same way teens dress alike to feel accepted, advertisers feel more comfortable with the 80 percent majority, copying trends and enjoying the feeling of belonging and blending. In the other extreme, marketers desperately try to be hip, thinking that “hipness” somehow equates with excellence. Professional marketers work persistently to alter the 80-20 Rule, but it’s hopeless changing an immutable Law of Nature.