The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die, and the Creative Resurrection to Come

Essex, former CEO of advertising agency Droga5, makes a convincing argument that most people find advertising annoying, ads are quietly disappearing from people’s screens due to ad-free TV and Internet ad-blockers, and advertising needs to be reinvented to better serve companies and customers. Essex ambles through these issues with respect to magazines and radio, and offers an instructive history of advertising, including early ads for Ivory Soap (“It floats!”) and Bayer’s introduction of heroin as a painkiller at the turn of the 20th century. He also explores a clear exception to his thesis, which is that ads still dominate TV broadcasts of live sporting events like NFL games. He glosses over direct-mail and TV and movie product placements, and makes no mention of in-theater advertising or online marketing content. His proposal that advertising must be made excellent, interesting, and original—with examples such as the American Girl doll line, The Lego Movie, and New York City’s Citi Bike program—seems to be sound advice, though he shows no evidence that this type of advertising effectively motivates people to buy products and services. Despite these omissions, Essex’s extended soliloquy on advertising’s past, present, and future is informative and enjoyable. (June)