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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment!, January 24, 2004
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
After seeing a rating above 4 stars, I happily ordered the book expecting a treat. What a disappointement! This has been the first book I haven't finished. I got about one quarter of the way through and got rid of it. Pros: Some good stories and ideas (but nothing that you couldn't find in any other marketing book of higher quality). Cons: As another reviewer suggested, the author merely gives examples of successful ads and tries to explain how they worked because they went against the grain and got a lot of attention. Well, I could have told you that! The real problem lies in the author's conclusions. The underlying theme seems to be: "Do the opposite of whatever you think will work best." If you think an ad is tasteless, inappropriate, and irrelevant, then run it because it will be a great success. If the ad has nothing whatsoever to do with the product, then it is more likely to succeed. For example, one of her "bright" ideas is: "You must forget about what makes sense...illogical thinking means that when you're asked to promote a bottle of water, you realize that water is the last thing you should focus on." Conclusion: I give this book a rating of 1.5 stars. Don't waste your time on this book.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A buzz, not a bang, January 1, 2004
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
Back in the last millennium I took my newly minted MBA and went to work for a huge advertising agency. Though those glamorous days are long behind me, I remain fascinated with the art and science of advertising, and am always on the lookout for a book that purports to divulge the secret. Bang! seemed perfect for a rainy winter evening. I zipped through the book in record time, thanks to the witty and engaging writing of Kaplan Thaler and Koval (or, more likely, their ghost writer Delia Marshall). The picture on the back cover is practically worth the price of the book (and sets the tone for the motes of wisdom dispensed between the covers). And the authors end the book with the shortest chapter I've ever read, but one that is guaranteed to make you chuckle. Great anecdotes, enthralling war stories, leavened by tales of minor foibles that remind us of the authors' humanity and humility. So why only three stars? Simple: the book doesn't deliver the goods. If it had been subtitled "the stories behind a few memorable ads" I would have given it another star or two. But by promising to tell readers the secret of "getting your message heard in a noisy world" the subtitle establishes expectations that are beyond the scope of the content. The lessons that the authors derive are simplistic (be nice to people; keep your mind open to inspiration; take risks) but the authors fail to synthesize the material they've presented into a model that might prove useful to a reader. Fun, fast, lively, and not a bad way to occupy 90 minutes of your reading time. Just don't set your expectations too high.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worthless -- Beware of 4 star rating, July 2, 2004
This review is from: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World (Hardcover)
I bought Bang! and was thouroughly disappotinted. Which made me wonder why the book got the 4-star rating while a lot of newer reviews were negative. Look towards the end of the reviewer list. You will find a number of glowing reviews all posted on Oct 21, 2003, mostly by a "reader in NY." Looks like somebody was trying to pump up the ratings. In short, this book is a lot of self-promotion and not a lot of advise, apart from needing a $5+ mil budget to hire a hot creative agency (just like the author's). What a coincidence.
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