You shall not be bored
Advertising Criticism: From his more than a thousand «Ad Reviews,» the legendary American columnist Bob Garfield has distilled a definitive industry handbook.
Advertising criticism The legendary American columnist Bob Garfield has distilled a divine industry code from his now over one thousand "Ad Reviews".And now a few words from our sponsors": the fact that and how Bob Garfield - who is to commercial communication in the USA roughly what Marcel Reich-Ranicki is to literary communication here at home - alienates the standard announcement for advertising interruptions in the title of his new book is proof of three of his undisputed qualities: self-irony, sharp-tonguedness and a business-promoting dash of megalomania. As a tongue-in-cheek representative of God in the world of marketing, he flirts with the latter to particular effect this time around. The idea for his very personal, yet of course universally valid ten commandments came to the "sage from the land of advertising" (self-declaration) between heaven and earth, or more precisely: on a flight back from the Cannes Festival. For Garfield, the annual lion hunt under palm trees is not part of the solution, but part of the (image) problem that advertisers have on both sides of the Atlantic. "In terms of integrity and reputation, you, my dear readers, still rank behind the comparatively respectable guild of insurance agents," is one of the side blows wielded with a foil by the "Pope of advertising" (USA Today), who, nota bene, has no industry experience himself.
"Advertrocities" à discretion
However, this has not stopped Garfield from raising or lowering his golden thumb over current campaigns in the central organ Advertising Age every week for over 20 years. His "neither old nor new, but absolutely timeless testament in his lifetime" can therefore be read as a kind of post-filed catalog of criteria for his Caesarian judgments. Its first and most important chapter is entitled "Rules are made to be observed" and begins with two Shakespeare sonnets that are as identical in form as they are different in content. This by no means the only excursion into literature is intended to illustrate that great art often succeeds not despite, but precisely because of external constraints and restrictions. According to Garfield, this also applies to "great communication" such as his declared favorite Apple commercial "1984".
The remaining chapters are then devoted - unsurprisingly, but as befits a critic - to more or less obvious and heinous breaches of the rules, so-called "advertrocities" (from "atrocity"). However, anyone hoping or even expecting the other nine commandments to be derived from this ludicrous collection of relevant and exotic case studies will be disappointed when they close the amusing indictment. For even in book form, Garfield is thankfully more entertainer than educator, more buffoon than priest. The fact that he occasionally makes the same mistake that he tries to exorcise from his readers - namely viewing and practising his own consumer product as literature or art - is something that the charming causeur is happy to forgive.
Watch out, trap!
What is annoying, however, are the sometimes insistent references to his "godlike non-partisanship". Whether Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis or Cordiant: none of the global agency networks is supposed to be
feel they are being pulled through the cocoa more or deeper than the lurking competition. The reason given for this questionable precautionary measure was once stated with an ironic undertone: "Sorry, but my influence on the Big Spender's choice of agency is now simply too great." As if books were now also covered by the absurd American legislation on product liability...
In Hermann Vaske's "The Ten Commandments of Creativity", Peter Ustinov (God) hands laptops instead of stone tablets to Dennis Hopper (Moses).
"Even brilliant advertising can't sell what people don't really want."
> And Now a Few Words from Me. Advertising's Leading Critic Lays Down the Law, Once and for All by Bob Garfield. McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York 2003. 204 pages, Fr. 54.50.
Oliver Classen
"Advertrocities" à discretion
However, this has not stopped Garfield from raising or lowering his golden thumb over current campaigns in the central organ Advertising Age every week for over 20 years. His "neither old nor new, but absolutely timeless testament in his lifetime" can therefore be read as a kind of post-filed catalog of criteria for his Caesarian judgments. Its first and most important chapter is entitled "Rules are made to be observed" and begins with two Shakespeare sonnets that are as identical in form as they are different in content. This by no means the only excursion into literature is intended to illustrate that great art often succeeds not despite, but precisely because of external constraints and restrictions. According to Garfield, this also applies to "great communication" such as his declared favorite Apple commercial "1984".
The remaining chapters are then devoted - unsurprisingly, but as befits a critic - to more or less obvious and heinous breaches of the rules, so-called "advertrocities" (from "atrocity"). However, anyone hoping or even expecting the other nine commandments to be derived from this ludicrous collection of relevant and exotic case studies will be disappointed when they close the amusing indictment. For even in book form, Garfield is thankfully more entertainer than educator, more buffoon than priest. The fact that he occasionally makes the same mistake that he tries to exorcise from his readers - namely viewing and practising his own consumer product as literature or art - is something that the charming causeur is happy to forgive.
Watch out, trap!
What is annoying, however, are the sometimes insistent references to his "godlike non-partisanship". Whether Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis or Cordiant: none of the global agency networks is supposed to be
feel they are being pulled through the cocoa more or deeper than the lurking competition. The reason given for this questionable precautionary measure was once stated with an ironic undertone: "Sorry, but my influence on the Big Spender's choice of agency is now simply too great." As if books were now also covered by the absurd American legislation on product liability...
In Hermann Vaske's "The Ten Commandments of Creativity", Peter Ustinov (God) hands laptops instead of stone tablets to Dennis Hopper (Moses).
"Even brilliant advertising can't sell what people don't really want."
> And Now a Few Words from Me. Advertising's Leading Critic Lays Down the Law, Once and for All by Bob Garfield. McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York 2003. 204 pages, Fr. 54.50.
Oliver Classen
