Sure. The E-Trade babies are cute.

They're also funny from time to time, especially when they get to "flex the golden pipes," or lay beat-downs in golf skins game. "Read the rule book, shankapotomus." The ads are clever. Because of their ads, I'd consider their services, if I traded.

Danica Patrick can sell beauty products, tires, and domain names with ease. It's ugly, gimmick-laiden advertising. Heck, I buy my domains from the company she promotes.

We've all been bombarded with advertisements of this ilk over the past few years. It works for some industries, but not all. And that's my issue with cutesy/clever/gimmicky advertising. Even though it works in some instances, it's the easy way out.

Sometimes I think the ad industry, the industry I choose to work in, has run out of ideas. It's even become apparent in health care marketing! More and more, we've seen gimmicky, device-driven campaigns work their way into the limelight.

For us, health care isn't cute. Health care isn't gimmicky. It's serious, hard work. It's also very personal and emotional. It doesn't always need to be the "warm-fuzzies." But like any good advertising, messaging should be based on an insight, clearly communicated and strong enough to elicit a visceral response. Advertising shouldn't be clever for the sake of being clever.

Gimmicks and one-liners have no room in medicine, and they have no place in our work for our clients. If we're to truly do the best advertising possible for our clients, we'd rather be genuinely inspiring than clever.

But man, cute sure can move a lot of stocks.