A friend of mine told me once that the problem with advertising folks is that they transfer demographic thinking to their clients. He said something along the lines of:

“Advertising has always been putting the general public in buckets. Women 25-34 this and men 35-55 that. Advertisers put us in buckets, too. They do some quick demographic research on my target consumer and think they know my business. They throw out some slick, fancy artwork with clever words on it and think I’m impressed.”

His chief complaint was the agencies he’d dealt with failed to accomplish what smart agencies consider perhaps the most important step: getting to know the client.