AdVerve Episode 26: The George Parker Edition

It’s George Parker, bitches! He of AdScam blog fame. Of non-Twitter fame. Of MadScam and Ubiquitous Persuaders book fame.

Normally, we do a timeline breakdown of the topics, but that wasn’t happening this time out as we cover in no order the arrogance of Apple, child labor, Modernista!, Crispin, critics, lawsuits, Domino’s pizza, Microsoft, eBay, tag sales, iPad, Will it Blend, French things, cigarette penis envy, GoDaddy and a buncha other stuff.

And we even manage to drop a few F-bombs *here and there.*

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Linkage:

• The very first flashmob. 


• Will It Blend? 


• The Most Interesting campaign.


• Old Spice campaign.


• Kohler campaign.


• Windows campaign.


• Domino’s Turnaround.


• Form and function with the iPad.

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Ducks -- Gone -- Wild -- !

Did the BeanCast last night with the distinguished Greg Verdino of Crayon and industry-weathered George Parker of bad-ass ad industry blog AdScam/The Horror!.

The title of the episode is Ducks Gone Wild, inspired by a tangent GP had about rubber ducks, Paris Hilton and blow jobs, followed by an anecdote from me about how ducks gang-rape.

Apart from all that, we talked about Amazon buying Zappos, Wal-Mart's bully complex, Twitter's free publicity, Target's magic touch and the Plaid Nation tour.

It's some salty shit. Click herey-here to heary-hear.

'Consistency was always one of David's greatest attributes.'

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of David Ogilvy's death, (m)adman George Parker wrote this cockles-warming bit about his two experiences meeting him, and reflected on what the man stands for in the context of the industry.

I like this part:

He glared, snapped his red braces, (Well, I made that last bit up, 'cos it sounds like the kind of thing he would do) banged the table and shouted "Never forget, advertising is about selling".

Then he was escorted out of the room by the minders.

The legend of Ogilvy resonates because he possessed no misconceptions, no shame, about advertising's end goal: selling.

Not to say there isn't art to persuasion. Ogilvy built on that foundation with another oft-quoted anecdote: "The consumer isn't stupid, she's your wife."

Philosophy in application: Ogilvy on Advertising is a book he had published expressly to shill his agency. Despite the motivation -- or rather, because of it -- it contains some marvelously good stuff that remains applicable today. It's also beautifully written.