This basic truth, which should be at the very heart of every advertising campaign and commercial, appears to have been forgotten by many creative agencies in their quest for industry awards.

That is the provocative view of visiting industry heavy-hitter Shelly Lazarus, media group Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).

In the opening speech at the inaugural World Effie Festival yesterday, Ms Lazarus, 60, called upon creative agencies to remember that their goal is to help sell a client's products and services, not 'creativity for creativity's sake', and that they should eschew advertisements 'whose sole purpose is to shock and jolt and are self-indulgent and tasteless'.

Among the 60 speakers addressing topics such as branding and design are London 2012 Olympics committee chairman Sebastian Coe, who spoke about how his team successfully pitched for the 2012 Olympics. And today, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew will be speaking on The Branding Of Singapore.

Ms Lazarus, who is based in New York, said she has no patience with those who ignore their clients' marketing needs, or worse, those who believe that an effective ad must be 'irritating, loud and flat-footed'.

A good ad can be both effective and creative, she said, noting how her firm's Campaign For Real Beauty commercials for cosmetic label Dove generated a double-digit sales increase and were able to score industry awards too.

One way to devise an effective campaign, she said, is to 'start from a big idea', such as Nike's 'Just Do It' and American Express' 'Membership has its privileges'.

Once this 'big idea' has been identified, the company and its advertising agency can work together to develop a campaign around the idea.

It would be even better, she said, if this idea 'touched a cultural nerve'.

The reason the Dove campaign worked so well was that women are tired of society's stereotype of how they should look. Ms Lazarus also highlighted how United States Democratic party contender Barack Obama's campaign message of hope and change spoke to the hearts of many Americans.

Clients too, said Ms Lazarus, should demand results, but they should remain open-minded as many of the best 'big ideas' were also risky ones.

She had, in fact, once proposed pegging her agency's payment to the number of credit card sign-ups for one of her company's clients, a large credit card company, but this fell through in the end as the client was uncomfortable with the model.