Today I received an e-mail from American Business Media inviting me to submit (for a $135 fee) an ad I had written for an awards competition.

The prize? A ?Creative Excellence in Business Advertising? (CEBA) award.

A panel of eight judges ? seven ad agency types and one ?creative consultant? (note: not an advertiser among them) ? would pick a winner based on ? you guessed it ? which ad they thought was most ?creative.?

I have news for you CEBA committee members?.

We direct marketers submit our ads ? and mailings, and online marketing campaigns ? in a contest every day.

It?s called ?commerce.? The judges are the consumers who buy (or don?t buy) our products based on our ads. And the prize they award is their hard-earned cash.

So, CEBA, you can keep your plaque, or trophy, or whatever. Or give it to the branding guys who enter your hokey competition.

We direct marketers will settle for making the cash register ring ? a much better sound than the applause of ad agency ?creatives? ? don?t you agree?