I like simplicity. Less is more has always been my design philosophy – even when more was demanded. And, I found in my 25+ years experience as an award-winning grad school educated graphic designer, that it is tricky to impossible to guide a client away from the demand for more.

No one wants to see PowerPoint slides as advertisements. The examples you showed look like PowerPoint slides. It makes the ads seem clichéd – and over designed – merely by virtue of looking like PowerPoint slides. A client might glom onto it because it reflects what they would produce. But, from a design perspective, it give an amateurish feel to the art – like it was done by someone gifted with PowerPoint, but with no design and layout training.

It's not our jobs as designers to give clients something they could do themselves. It's our job to blow them away with something that they didn't even know they desired – to show them the Art in our graphic arts.