Have you ever felt like there is something wrong with our advertising industry? Are you questioning the values of extravagant ad festivals? Do you think online marketing has its purpose but is way overrated? Then we have just the book for you.
Somewhere the advertising business has kinda lost the plot, we’re not sure exactly sure where. So many incompetents, who can’t know we are incompetent because the skills we need to produce the right answers are exactly the skills we lack in order to know what a right answer is.
With a foreword written by Mark Earls, author of Herd and Copy, Copy, Copy this is the first book of advertising creative Eaon Pritchard and it does not fail to impress. In his book, Eaon tries to figure out what exactly is wrong with the advertising industry and how we got there. The book touches some of the predominant topics that have gone off the rails, such as ad spending, storytelling, altruistic brand positioning, automation, ad festivals and online marketing while debunking myths about Ben & Jerry’s rise to fame and Orson Welles’ adaption of War of the Worlds on CBS Radio.
One of the recurring themes are the many analogies to music and bands from the 1970s onwards. It is only fitting that Pritchard called his book ‘Where did it all go wrong?’ – which also happens to be a song and single by the English rock band Oasis, originally released in the year 2000.
Whilst being a very humorous take on the issues the advertising industry faces, Eaon backs up his theories sourcing different studies, referencing books (like Bryon Sharp’s How Brands Grow or Potter and Heath’s The Rebel Sell) and quoting brilliant minds of our time. And after his highly sophisticated rant is over, he reminds us of what advertising is supposed to be all about – basic human desires.
And many of his peers seem to be d’accord with Eaon. For example, Pat Langton, who recently posted an article on Campaign Brief in which he asks himself ‘Is craft dead in advertising?’.
Book: Where did it all go wrong? Adventures at the Dunning-Kruger peak of advertising
Author: Eaon Pritchard
Publisher: ArtScienceTechnology
Published: 12 December 2017
Format: Paperback | 210 pages
Dimensions: 127 x 203 x 12,5 mm | 0.28kg
This is the third book in three months that we came across presenting itself in satin stock with a soft touch varnish. It seems to become a trend in 2018 to focus on soft and smooth tactile sensations.
The dimensions of the book make it perfect for the daily commute, a Saturday morning read on the couch or as Eaon suggests:
The 200-page paperback fits nicely in the back pocket of your selvage for optimum disagreeableness trait signaling.
Unfortunately, it seems to have not been spell-checked by a human proofreader. We were able to find at least 20 errors on 200 pages, which is just not good form. Needing to read a sentence twice every ten pages distracts from the great content.
The book offers a humorous and often depressingly accurate interpretation of the current situation of the advertising and related industries and sheds light on how we got there. It is a fun and eye-opening read that we can only recommend and we are looking forward to the next one.
Eaon Pritchard has worked as an advertising creative and planner for over 20 years firstly in London and now as head of strategy at UM Melbourne. He also lectures and consults, currently serving on the communications advisory board for RMIT University in Melbourne and writes regularly for WARC and his personal blog Never Get Out Of The Boat. Where did it all go wrong? is his first book but there’s another one coming.