“Your CMO is stupid. So hire us.”

OK, that’s not precisely verbatim, but that’s what this ad seems to be saying.

Wow.

Here’s an ad for a B2B marketing company that’s been running lately in Chief Executive magazine:

How in the world can you develop a successful working relationship with the CMO and in-house marketers after telling the CEO that the CMO is basically a dim, slow-moving, clumsy, unskilled, C-level “sea cow?”

I spent eight years in-house as marketing director or marketing partner in law firms, and I often hired outside consultants to add expertise in specialized technical areas. It wasn’t because we were stupid, and any consultant that came within 100 miles of implying that would have been fired on the spot.

Heck, that’s why lawyers and marketers hire Fishman Marketing to help with their marketing strategy, branding, and websites. It’s not because they’re dopes; it’s because these are extremely narrow specialty areas where even the smartest in-house generalists don’t typically have a lot of hands-on experience. We’re a support service.

The in-house marketers are extremely valuable members of a successful team. The consultants should make them look good. I can’t imagine a conceivable scenario where it would be helpful in any possible way to mock them. That’s nuts.

What the heck are they thinking?

[Images (c) 2014 the advertising company.]