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Last week I was interviewed by BBC World Services . The topic of the interview was Trump and Twitter. One of the questions they asked was whether the fascination with Trump's tweets would be the new normal for politicians. My answer was no. Historically, large social media successes have mostly been one-offs and have not been repeatable. Here are a few social media phenomena that were supposed to change everything and changed absolutely nothing. First was The Blair Witch Project . It was a super-low budget film that became a smash hit through clever use of social media. It was hailed as the turning point for movie marketing, and was "proof" that movies would no longer need expensive TV advertising. Tune in to the Super Bowl to see how wrong this turned out to be. Next is Zappos . They built a very successful online shoe retailing company (eventually bought by Amazon) on the back of Twitter. This was supposed to disrupt retailing forever as clever marketers would use Twitt...

A few years ago we entered what might be termed the “technological” era of advertising. In this era, machines and software took a lot of the tasks that used to be done by people and started to do them quicker, and in some cases better. Recently, we have thought of ad technology mostly in terms of media. But technology has influenced the advertising business in many other ways including film production, computer design, data collection and analysis, etc. Technology, in fact, has influenced all aspects of the advertising business. In many instances for the better, in some, for the worse. The problem we have yet to come to terms with is that there is a difference between technology and science. We view our modern technological tools as giving us a scientific way of doing advertising. Before technology we were mostly guessing at what was working and what wasn’t. Today we believe that technology gives us a much truer picture of advertising reality. I am not convinced. The essence of science...

A few days ago, a fine fellow named Matt Bergman was kind enough to say some very nice things about me on LinkedIn . Matt did a juxtaposition of excerpts from two different pieces about "branding." One was from WPP (the largest agency holding company on the planet) and one was from me. Being the nice guy that he is, Matt said that both pieces came from completely different planets but each had something to offer. Being the asshole that I am, I think the WPP piece is utter garbage. It is absolutely one hundred percent undiluted horseshit. Some sentences seem to be just random clichés strung together willy-nilly by imbeciles. Now, to be fair, the excerpts are just that, excerpts. You can take pretty much anything and cut it apart and make it look silly. But this thing wasn't edited for that purpose. It was edited for the opposite purpose by someone looking for value. In my opinion, it's a perfect example of the unspeakable jargon and hideous double-talk that the adverti...

There is a battle going on for the soul of marketing. It is a struggle between two competing forces -- technology and wisdom. It is not unusual for technology and wisdom to be at odds. Technology moves in a straight line. Wisdom doesn't. When our country was formed, about 250 years ago, the technology was remarkably primitive compared to today. No motor vehicles, no electricity, no antibiotics. But was there less wisdom? You'd have to be a mighty persuasive individual to convince any reasonable person that today's leaders are wiser than the "founding fathers." This has been true throughout history. One of the reasons that the Bible and Shakespeare still appeal to us is that the follies of humans - the greed, envy, and betrayal - are constant while the technology moves from slingshots to spears to laser guided missiles. If I had to make the case that humanity is any wiser today than it was 5,000 years ago, I'd be at a loss. Nonetheless, today in the marketing i...

In 2014, I wrote a book called Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey . The thesis of the book was that we marketers have largely lost contact with reality and are living in a fantasyland of our own invention. Last week I was doing a podcast for the great Bob Knorpp and was asked about an article that appeared in MarketingDaily entitled "Marketers As Relationship Scientists." The article was the kind of undiluted horseshit that has become the norm in the modern literature of marketing. If we are to believe the article in question we are no longer " Brand Architects, " nor are we any longer " Cultural Anthropologists. " No sir. Now we need to be reborn as " Relationship Scientists ." It seems that the worse we get at marketing the more preposterous our job descriptions become. The problem is that the gap I described in " Marketers/Mars " -- between what we think we are doing and what we are actually doing -- is acceler...

Three years ago I wrote a post called " My Hopes For 2015 ." Just to show how little things change, I am re-posting it here word-for-word as my hopes for 2018. I'm tired of being disappointed. Every year I have high hopes that it's going to be different. And it never is. So this year I am determined not to be disappointed. I've adjusted my hopes for the year accordingly. Here's what I'm hoping for in 2015: I'm hoping that some people with no talent or brains became really famous.  I'm hoping that a presidential candidate writes a book. I hope that some Hollywood stars sign a petition. I'm hoping that a famous athlete gets arrested. I'm hoping that college students discover the world isn't perfect.   I hope there's a Super Bowl spot with talking animals. I'm hoping that companies I buy things from make it very hard for me to talk to someone on the phone.  I'm hoping for really annoying online ads.  I hope to see more about Do...

So today we're having a nice light pleasant day in which no planners will be harmed, no fraudulent or corrupt online bastards will be unmasked, and no agency holding companies will be ridiculed. I know, it sounds a little creepy. But fear not. Instead we will focus on the positive. In particular, the self-aggrandizing positive -- my most favorite kind. Today we are announcing the launch of the Ad Contrarian Show a sporadic podcast focusing on some of my favorite blog posts over the years. I believe they make for a nice cleansing 5 minute break from the horrifying daily onslaught of bullshit we all subjected to. So when you're feeling really blue, punch up the Ad Contrarian Show right here and I suspect you'll feel a lot better. The second part of today's blog is to accept my elevation to the role of the "Copernicus Of Media" as bestowed on me by the great David Indo and Tom Denford of ID Comms . Each year they pick their ten favorite people and things in m...

People sometimes ask me some version of the following question: "Why are you so down on political ads on Facebook and not on TV?" It's a reasonable question. The answer has 3 parts: 1. Television advertising is obviously advertising. When we see a TV spot, we know exactly what it is. No one ever mistook a TV spot for a news broadcast. Ads on Facebook, however, look exactly like "content." It is hard to differentiate an ad from a post or a post from a news item. Consequently, political ads on Facebook often serve as fake news even if they are not intended to be such. 2. On television (and radio) political ads are required to be identified as such. Not on Facebook. Facebook maintains the absurd position that it is not a media company. In fact, it is the largest media company in the history of the world. By saying they are a "platform" or a "tech company" or some other obfuscation, they have exempted themselves from the adult responsibilit...

We can't do anything these days without someone annoying the shit out of us for feedback. Buy a cell phone? Pretty soon you'll get an email inquiring about your buying experience. Visit the doctor? In a few days the ceo of the "system" will be asking you to rate your visit. Take a flight? You'll get some free miles if you just complete the survey. Every morning I go to a coffee shop called Peet's . Every morning they ask me if I have their app. Every morning I say no. Every morning they tell me I should download the app because I can accumulate points and get a free cup of coffee. Every morning I tell them that if I wanted a free cup of coffee I would stay the fuck home and make it myself. The whole business of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has evolved into not much more than a contest for who can collect the most data by constantly pestering the hell out of us.  It might be acceptable if these people were actually doing something useful with their da...