My senior year of college, in the early ’90s, I participated in a national advertising campaign competition for a major photography company. We put together a fun campaign focused on helping grow the photography market amongst college-age students.

This photography company had recently introduced single-use cameras, and we decided to focus our campaign around that product. We recommended selling the single-use cameras as an accessory that all students should consider carrying around in the backpacks. You never know, after all, when a Camera-Worthy Moment will happen.

Our team won the approval of the regional judges, and we were excited to move on to the national competition. I didn’t travel to Houston with our presentation team, but my thoughts and goodwill were with them as they presented our campaign. We all were unprepared for the feedback we received. The national judges, comprised of top advertising and marketing representatives for the brand that sponsored the competition, did not understand our campaign. We had missed the mark, they told us, and we did not understand how to encourage our own demographic to take more pictures.

“This is ridiculous,” one executive wrote in his critique. “Nobody will choose to carry a camera with them. Just. In. Case. They. Might. Want. To. Take. A. Picture!” Other comments were equally scathing. They wanted to make sure we understood that we did not share their marketing vision.

So, now, here we are. Everyone carries a camera wherever they go. That national photography company no longer enjoys the prominence it once had. And we are learning more about the world through the shared experience of digital photography.

When possible, I will post one of my own photos to accompany my blog posts. If I don’t currently have a suitable photograph in my camera roll, however, I will use two of my favorite stock photography websites: Pexels.com or Adobe Stock.