Tak Tik Boom

Advertising's 10 Best Kept Secrets

In an attempt to restore some perspective to the overblown claims about online advertising and social media, a few years ago I produced a list called The Top 10 Double-Secret Unknown Facts About Advertising.

I have updated it and the Fine Arts Committee here at The Ad Contrarian has made a little movie out of it.

Feel free to spread it around. (This video is now posted on YouTube here.)

A Great Day In The History Of Literature

Regular readers will be happy to know that today is a no-whining day here at TAC. I am a happy dude.

My book 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising is no longer just a bunch of electrons bouncing around an Amazon server. It's now a real book with real ink and real paper.

You can find it here at Amazon. Of course if you prefer pixels, you can still buy the pixie version.

Even if you have the

Talking To Grown-Ups

I've spent an inordinate amount of time over the years railing about the silliness of marketers who are constantly chasing people with no money (young people) and ignoring the people with lots of money (people over 50.)

Today we'll leave that argument behind and talk instead about a different aspect of the problem: there isn't an adequate vocabulary for talking to grown-ups in advertising.

It's

Everything Not Previously Dead Is Now Dead

Guess what? Now marketing is dead, too!

First television was dead. Then advertising was dead. Then ad campaigns were dead. Then broadcasting was dead. Then copywriters were dead.

Now marketing is dead. And it's not just dead, it's dead in caps, as in, "Marketing is Dead."

This time it must be true because it comes from some genius who teaches at Stanford and writes for the Harvard Business

The Consumer Is In Charge. Really?

In my family's history, there were a pair of people who I find fascinating.

They were an aunt and uncle who were born in the 1920s. They grew up in deep poverty during the great depression. According to legend, their families were often to be found out on the streets of NYC with their meager belongings, having been thrown out of their tenement apartments. Then they would rent other apartments

Nobody Learns Anything

The very first post I wrote for this blog almost 5 years ago was called Aiming Low and was about marketers' unrelenting stupidity at targeting young people in advertising.

A few months later I wrote a piece about Pontiac mindlessly doing exactly that:
According to Ad Age, Pontiac is shifting its advertising efforts toward media that appeal to younger audiences such as video game tie-ins, Web

Stimulation Nation

We are addicted to stimulation.

Every bar has nine TVs going at all times. Every commuter is wrapped in an iPhone-induced cocoon of digital music, chat, or games. Every couch potato is checking his Facebook page while watching American Idol. Every retail store has music playing and screens fluttering. Every sporting event is a non-stop parade of videos, promotions, and giveaways. Every movie is