Opinion: Perspective - It's time to stop moaning and love the TV medium.(Editorial)

'The answer's a 30-second TV ad. Now what's the question?' OK, it's an advertising agency cliche. It smacks of old-school advertising, and creative superiority. And I'd be amazed if anyone ever vocalises such a sentiment these days. But I'd also be amazed if it wasn't still a prevalent thought in some significant corners of big creative departments.

And why not? It's not hard to see why agencies like making TV ads. First they imply reasonable marketing budgets and brand investment, a more significant role for the ad agency in the client's marketing heart and mind, bigger agency fees, glossier agency reels. And the creatives get to play movie-maker for a few days.

For media agencies, too, TV buying departments are a whopping overhead ... no matter how media neutral a media agency likes to think it is, it would be economic suicide to maintain a bloody big buying department and consistently recommend stunt advertising.

And, at least as far as some of the smaller TV players are concerned, TV sales teams are often among the most innovative and creative media owners, constantly finding new and engaging ways of using the TV advertising medium.

Yet, on the other hand (and Murdoch MacLennan's reign at The Telegraph aside), you'd be hard-pressed to find a medium more vilified among adland's chattering classes at the moment.

Of course, after years of arrogant big-dicking, there's a sense that broadcasters such as ITV deserve a bit of a kicking: ITV1's share of viewing dipped to an all-time low in the summer, and advertisers have wasted no time voting with their feet, walking their wallets over to other channels and other media. All of this has quickly become good sport and, in the way we journalists have of over-analysing other media, a full-blooded (and bloody) national newspaper pastime.

Thinkbox, the TV marketing body headed by the impressive Tess Alps, must be tearing its collective hair out. Just as it's finally getting its house in order, faith in TV seems at an all-time low. Or rather faith in ITV1 is at an all-time low - despite the ...