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The Ubiquitous Persuaders

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George Parker is quite often described as being full of "piss & vinegar". I can't attest to his actual chemical makeup but I can tell you there is one thing he is definitely not full of. The Ubiquitous Persuaders is an insightful and honest look at a profession that he obviously loves. Having spent over 30 years in the same profession I share his concern about the current state of advertising. The times are not a' changin'. They have changed. Mr. Parker's analysis of how some very smart people began making some very questionable choices is dead on. I don't know if I would suggest this book to someone who wants to get into the business. It would probably cause them to seriously reconsider that offer they got for a steady bartender gig. On the other hand, I would suggest it for everyone who has anything to do with today's ever widening field of "marketing and communications". We have enough people with degrees in accounting. We need a few who majored in common sense.

Anyone who is interested in, works in or teaches about the "advertising" industry must read this book. More than once.

GEORGE PARKER IS EITHER A MADMAN. OR A GENIUS. (Or both?) Because only a madman or a genius would have the vision and guts to write a book like this. After all, he's "been there"--more than most. And "done that" successfully for many years.
This book provides a brutally realistic, uncanny portrait of an often-dysfunctional industry---painted with a sharp knife that cuts away all the assumptions and myths about the "ad biz" leaving an intriguing landscape populated by people (and companies) who are running in place--- running toward the future--or running amok.
Those who live and work in that world...know that.

PARKER PAINTS A BRILLIANT PORTRAIT OF AN INDUSTRY THAT'S A PARADOX.
On one side, the advertising industry has made a lot of people extremely wealthy. Provided a haven for creative minds. Helped many, many businesses and organizations succeed and profit. Forced itself into the social and cultural fabric of our country--and our world. Shaped many attitudes, perceptions and preferences about a lot of things, products and companies. Anointed some cartoon characters, icons and imaginative people into "sainthood." Helped politicians win--or lose elections--or lose elections. And, told gazillions of consumers what, where and when to buy the stuff they need.
After all, advertising is definitely "ubiquitous." More so these days than ever before.

On the other side, it is an industry that also contained--as Edgar Allen Poe might put it--"the seeds of its eventual destruction." An industry that created and broke "rules" with almost gleeful, sadistic abandon. An industry so self-absorbed that it fails to see where it is headed for the future. And why.

PARKER HAS PLANTED ONE FOOT ON EACH SIDE OF THE PARADOX.Without rupturing himself. He has the ability,like Nabokov's Humbert Humbert, to stand outside and watch the parade pass by over the years. With many impressive, curious, bizarre and wonderful floats. Loud marching bands. playing music that annoys, seduces or grabs the ears of listeners. And a continuing group of clowns throwing free goodies to the thongs of people who line the streets. Or supermarket aisles. Or car lots. Or online, twittering away.
He has no "axe to grind," nor agenda, Other than to tell the truth---which is refreshing since he talks about an industry known for shading or manipulating the truth. Or downright lying.
The real value of the book is its brutal honesty. Very few books of the many published about the ad industry are.

MANY PEOPLE WON'T LIKE THIS BOOK. Especially those he talks about. Or those who blindly believe that things are "great" in the ad biz. Or those who work for the BDA's or MDA's (medium-size dumb agencies) or SDA's (small dumb agencies). Or those who cling to old-fashioned visions of what the agency business was like--"back in the day."
That's because no one likes to look in a mirror and see a portrait that reveals things that the person doesn't want revealed. But, as Jeff Goodby writes in his Preface, "...The thing is, the guy is so often, well, right...(He's) not just right, (He's) hugely inspirational!" And that's because deep down, George sincerely "cares"
enough to tell the truth.

SADLY, THOSE WHO MUST READ THIS BOOK...PROBABLY WON'T.
That includes most of the "professors" and "academics" in our universities and colleges who pretend to teach students all about the "ad world" when many haven't ever lived and worked in that world. All you need to do is look at any of those obscenely-expensive,irrelevant and out of touch "textbooks" and accompanying tests. workbooks, "cases," and CD-Roms created by the "academics" in search of a quick buck. People who write confusing, irrelevant "scholarly" articles in publications no one cares about--to prove that point. '
(There are exceptions. And, those exceptions probably already own a copy of this book--and have told their students about it.)

THIS BOOK WILL SCARE THE "ACADEMICS." Big time. I wouldn't be surprised that they wouldn't tell any of their "ad majors" about George Parker and his books. Or give them his web site and blog addresses. That is, if they even know this book exists.
The reason is that it honestly and realistically reveals an industry's evolution and portrays the world THEY teach as some kind of "alternate universe" with little contact with reality.
That means their students who will---at some time in the near and far future-- become part of or even run this business, won't have an opportunity to look at the business the way they should. Instead, they'll be wearing the rose-colored glasses most Colleges and Universities issue with the "ad major" diploma.

Like anyone else who cares enough about the industry and its future to write a review of this book, I consider this book one of the "classic" must reads for anyone who wants to understand and work in this industry in the future.
I invite any student or teacher who reads this review to have the guts to order and read this book. Or better yet, add it to a college course reading list. (It is now on MY course reading list. And
even though I got an advance copy free, I also bought two to send to
people who desperately need to read it.)
They won't of course. Because that requires vision and guts.
Yet, by not doing that, they prove one of the major premises/ theses/messages of this book.
That stupidity is very hard to hide.

As someone starting out early in my career in marketing I found this book to be very insightful. It gives a birds eye view of recent advertising history as well as an overview of the current state of advertising. The chapters cover various industry niches such as IT advertising, youth advertising, health advertising, and new media. In true AdScam fasion perhaps the best thing about this book is its critical eye. No error goes unnoticed, and every flaw of the current system is held up to the light. Parker does a wonderful job of examining the contradictions inherent in the business models and actions of the BDAs (big dumb agencies).

The overarching theme of The Ubiquitous Persuaders is that the advertising industry is botched and must be reformed; Parker makes this point by examining the industry thoroughly and quoting David Ogilvy as often as possible. The two largest issues brought to light are that agencies make the mistake of giving clients what they want rather than what they need, and that advertising has decreased in quality in negative correlation to the increase in available mediums; the number of mediums is exploding (hence the term ubiquitous). Reading this book you must ask yourself if the ubiquitous persuaders are effective persuaders, to which the answer is assuredly not. Can they be in the future? That is the real question. George takes a shot at answering it, but I won't spoil the book for you.

Overall I found The Ubiquitous Persuaders to be very enjoyable. It's to the point, not too big, and full of good information. The book overviews the ad industry. That being said, if you already have been working in the industry for a decade you've probably already seen the problems he points out, but if you're not in the industry or are just getting started this is a great read.

Parker has an axe to grind with ad agencies and most of it is well deserved. His writing is probably the way he talks, which is what you'd expect from a sailor whose been at sea for months with nothing but smelly, sweaty men on board. But being accustomed to locker room talk, it bothered me not a bit. Just be careful if you are offended by salty talk. I frankly think that a person who writes a book should use more class and better language. But, having said that, I loved this book.

Parker makes some factual errors that should have been caught by someone. He says, for example, that Bette Davis starred in "Mommy Dearest." While the great Bette could have played the part quite well, the honor of that part went to the queen of mean, Joan Crawford.

To give you an idea of his feelings about ad agencies he says, ". . . I have seen repeated innumerable times in innumerable presentations during my long and somewhat checkered career - the ass kissing, . . . It is proof of something I have always believed: the vast majority of people earning their crust in advertising agencies will prostitute their wives and sell their children into slavery if it will keep the client happy." How true that is!

It's always disgusted me how ad people will do whatever the client wants when the client has absolutely no idea what's best for him. It's like a doctor giving the patient any pill he wants just to keep him happy --- even if the pill is going to kill him.

This book is a take-off on the popular classic by Vance Packard in the fifties, "The Hidden Persuaders." I own a first edition of Packard's book and I still love it. But, it's full of crap just like most books about advertising. That's because advertising is full of crap. And, as George Parker will gladly tell anyone who listens, ad agencies and their minions are still very much full of crap.

If you're a businessperson or in the advertising or marketing business, you'll love this book. It's funny but it's true. You'll laugh but you'll also get your eyes opened. It's a real look into the world of advertising. You'll see that most advertising simply doesn't work. Yet clients just keep right on doing it and dictating how they want it used.

The things that tend to work, like direct mail, is set aside by agencies and clients alike because it's not glamorous enough and there's not enough profit in it. Shame on them.

This is a truly good book. Aside from some statements that haven't been checked and are untrue and except for a lot of opinion that's not totally based on fact and some typos, it's pretty much a true picture of the advertising business and advertising in general.

If you want a real romp in the world of advertising, buy this book. It's better than Mad Men.

Highly recommended.

-- Susanna K. Hutcheson

Prolific creative consultant and PSFK columnist George Parker isn't afraid to bring some real talk to the table in his most recent book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders, a rousing look at the quickly evolving world of advertising - where it's heading and how far it's come. The book serves as a much-needed update to Vance Packard's 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders, which attempted to expose the nefarious world of media manipulation, subliminal advertising, and other business-driven mind control closing in on us.

The Ubiquitous Persuaders offers a comprehensive study of advertising and all its follies, including industry niches, the relevance of new technologies/social media, and of course, BDAs (Big Dumb Agencies, coined by Parker himself) and the contradictions they endlessly (and ubiquitously) propagate. The starting text for Chapter Two hints at the overall tone and theme of the book: "It's deja vu all over again: How advertising went from insiduous mind manipulation and hitting the consumer over the head with a two-by-four, hard sell of the fifties, to the creative revolution of the sixties, then back to the hard sell of the seventies, and why it continues to do all of the above in never ending repetitive cycles."

Parker's invective against some of the major players in the monolith of Advertising (with a capital A) is more than just an entertaining read. It's considered and undoubtedly eye-opening, his criticisms borne out of an earnest desire to see real change in the way advertisers and brands think and behave. Parker sees the current model as a dysfunctional, paradoxical machine that is simultaneously building up myths while stifling creativity. He cites sources ranging from David Ogilvy and company CEOs to "The Terminator" and Stephen Fry to illustrate how the art of persuasion has become a conflicted religion rooted in money, deluded omniscience, and maintaining the status quo. The Ubiquitous Persuaders helps to uncover the false idols and contradictions of the faulty industry. It's a bold, insightful wake-up call that asks us to reconsider what, why, and how we buy, sell, and market.

Less a sequel than a Disney re-imagining. (If, that is, Walt had thrown back a few Boddingtons and let loose with what he really thought about his visitors.) While most marketing, advertising and thought-leader gurus-turned-authors today focus on their own special brand of proprietary lingo and brand-speak, George Parker looked back instead to Vance Packard's classic Hidden Persuaders to see what has changed in 50 years.

Not much according to George.

Ubiquitous Persuaders is an apt title because people are now so flooded with advertising messages that they couldn't escape them if they tried. What could possibly be learned from a book about an industry that changes by the hour? Read it and you'll discover a lot, actually.

Containing slightly more f-bombs than his previous work MadScam, (but still not enough to satisfy hardcore Parker fans), it nonetheless takes care of business--literally, from both agency and client vantage points.

It's all a con though as Parker spares nobody while looking at an industry selling you things you didn't know you needed. An industry stubbornly refusing to adapt to life in a modern consumer culture, one that is quickly finding ways other than through traditional advertising to connect with brands and the products it uses.

George Parker is a no-holds-barred swaggering hero of the original Mad Men era, and he is mad as hell. With his uncompromising tome: The Ubiquitous Peruaders, Mr. Parker carefully (and gleefully) tears apart the fabric of an industry come undone. Applying surgical skill (and one assumes a wee bit of scotch), the author breaks down the ways in which the ad insutry has failed itself and its clients, and exposes the lies told and sins committed. It is not all a wake, however. With the same high spirits, George highlights new companies that are leading the way back to creativity, resourcefulness and fatnastic ideas that will recharge this rattled economy we are all mired in. A MUST READ for any brand folks in charge of their communication plans, ad people who still believe in their art, and readers who are anxious to get a peak at a sexy industry whose stockings badly need mending. Go to it!!

george parker is one of those "can't look away from this" writers... he's harsh, uncompromising, sometimes brutal but he hits his points extremely well. there are lots of books that can be read about the fine art and craft of advertising, careers well spent in serving clients needs to increase sales, etc. if that's what you want to read, this is not that book.

if you want to get an inside look at the dirty linen closet of advertising and see what happens without the benefit of the PR spin, then this is the book you need to read. george is a veteran of the game, having worked for many years on some of the biggest accounts at some of the biggest agencies and he has a long memory. that's not to say he's vindictive.

this book, his second, is written from a firmly rooted common-sense perspective after having lived through some very interesting scenarios only advertising has to offer. and he has the good manners to spare us the sugar-coating. this is a book for adults, his language is rough at times, but his point-of-view is welcome and a relief from all the press clippings we're fed about how "we're redefining the advertising model", "we're making the agency of the future", "we're in perpetual beta" and so forth...

read it and see what the real Mad Men are up to ...

Parker's back with a second random walk down Madison Avenue (or wherever it is that they consider the center of American advertising these days), and it is well worth a read after you finish his first book, MadScam. My personal favorite chapter is Nine: "Is the Purple Pill Making You See Red?" where he explains the complicated politics and payoffs behind advertising's decidedly UN-healthy relationship with Big Pharma. If you liked Chris Buckley's brilliant "Thank You For Smoking," you'll find George Parker's point-blank insider musings timely, and though the men are from opposite sides of the political aisle, they're soul mates when it comes to making a book both shocking and funny.

The Ubiquitous Persuaders, written by original "Mad Man" and AdScam blog author George Parker, shows readers advertising's past, present and future whilst illuminating adverati, clients and curious alike on the depth of the dysfunction that currently permeates "the world's second oldest profession."

This timely update of "The Hidden Persuaders," a classic book written in 1957 by journalist and social critic Vance Packard on the "devious practices of the advertising business," provides Parker the springboard he needs to systematically expose the myriad problems of what he refers to as "Big Dumb Agencies" or BDAs. (BDAs = a small number of large agencies owned by four international holding companies.) Agencies Parker says are so cumbersome and consumed with parent company financial goals that innovation, creativity and accountability are rendered nearly impossible.

After painstakingly outlining all of the issues with today's BDAs, Parker polishes his crystal ball and tells the future of the ad business, including predictions that came true so swiftly after he called them he added a postscript shortly before publication with additional prognostications. (Hint: Think Blade Runner - powered by Google.)

The Ubiquitous Persuaders is fascinating, gripping and prescient, written by an award winning 35-year ad vet who has worked for nearly every major agency, in offices all over the world. A must read for those who want to know not only what really goes on in advertising now, but more importantly, what's yet to come.