When you read George Parker’s raw blog, Adscam, it’s hard not to get angry….sometimes with George, sometimes at George. It’s written on pure emotion and f-bombs. The douchenozzles, the Poisoned Dwarf, the BDAs. He spews upwards of five posts a day, pulls no punches, and in almost all cases, says the things most of us wish we could.
But when I read his new book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders, I discovered something about George. The man is a scholar. I learned more about the history and roots of advertising in the first three chapters than I have in 15 years, and I consider myself to be something of an ad geek.
George is a lifelong student of the business. And he educates his readers in great detail about where advertising came from, so we can see the absurdity in where it is going. As he says in the book, “Damn, we don’t even learn from the past, so how the hell can we forecast the future?”
What readers of this blog will surely connect with is George’s breakdown of big agencies’ self destruction. Conglomerates buy independents, and with rare exception (Goodby being the only one of note), the creativity they purchase gets bean-counted to death when accountants start running the joint. From the very first chapter:
The bottom line is simply about making the bottom line. Or, as the financial director of one of Madison Avenue’s largest agencies was reputed to have said upon hearing they had just picked up a prestigious national account that would allow the agency to do some high quality work, “Fuck the work. What about the money?”
George calls The Ubiquitous Persuaders “A fifty year update of Vance Packard’s book The Hidden Persuaders,“ which I admittedly haven’t read. All I know is that this current version provides excellent analysis of everything from the industry’s gold rush to acquire technology clients to commercials promising the end of erectile dysfunction. It’s educational, entertaining, and one hell of a fine read.
I once thought George Parker was a vitriolic, no-substance curmudgeon with a chip on his shoulder. Well, The Ubiquitous Persuaders proved me right about everything except the no-substance part. If you read AdScam, then you must buy and read The Ubiquitous Persuaders.
You will never look at Mr. Parker the same way again.
