Rocker Patti Smith on Advertising

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Last Friday, as the Cannes Lions ad festival neared its end, rocker Patti Smith took the stage to talk about her music, her memoir, and the creative process.

The seminar barely touched on advertising, but in a 20-minute press conference afterward she fielded a bunch of questions about it. Smith is not an expert on digital ads - or advertising at all. But she does have well defined views on the proper role of advertising in society, on the problem of clutter, and on the symbiosis between ads and technology.

Among her comments here: "People that use advertising would be smarter to give the public less advertising but more creative advertising." And: "The Internet is based on advertising, and you can feel almost like you're being devoured."