Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

Book excerpt: So youve just come up with a new ad campaign. Love the spots! Too bad no one will ever see themeven worsetoo bad no one cares! Why is it that so much of that stuff we immediately recognize as advertising is so bad? Its not just badwellit sucks. The reason: even though its 2010, most ad agencies and the practitioners who run them are still doing things the same way as Don Draper and the guys from Sterling Cooper on Mad Men, the hit AMC series that depicts Madison Avenue in the 60s. The problem today? Gone are the chain-smoking, bourbon-slugging, secretary-assaulting ad men of the 60s. Newspapers and radio are dying. Commercial TV is losing its audience to subscription-based content. Todays consumer of advertising content is mobile, prepared to DVR through commercials, and watch content on their terms online, on a hand-held device, or a Smartphone. In Pay No Attention to that Man behind the Curtain, Patrick Griffin and Kevin Flynn dissect mass media advertising at an historic crossroads and explain what no longer works. Through real-world examples and biting humor, they show how to market in ways that are both creative and smart.