• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, September 11, 2009

In a review of "The Chaos Scenario," Bob Garfield's new book (which he generously says is "a well-researched descent into what [Bob] gleefully sees as the fragmentation of mass media on a global scale") Jeff Goodby writes on Ad Age.com: "Well, as you always kind of suspected, Bob Garfield hates advertising. He even thinks it will die, at least in its mass-appeal form. And big deal, he'd say. People hated that crap anyway."

While it is amusing to think that the primary reviewer of ad creative for Ad Age hates advertising, I can't say for certain that Bob Garfield doesn't speak for everyman. Given the fact that twenty-five years ago it was estimated that people were exposed to 1500 messages per day, and now it's up to 5,000 ad messages a day (I read that somewhere really important like the New York Times, but don't quote me because nobody really has a clue what the real number is), small wonder people hate them.

Hating ads has a rich history. In fact, in 1759 Samuel Johnson whined: "Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic."

Let's see where do we place the blame? That if the industry had its way, the entire surface of the earth would be covered by ads? Remember how shocked we were that there were so many brand names plastered in 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968)? Now, that seems like quaint restraint. You get the feeling that if you stand still for too long in a public place someone wwill run up and tattoo an ad on your forehead (been there, done that).

Certainly network TV has not done audiences any favors by eating up a third of every hour with commercials. I am floored (as I high speed past them) how many ads are squeezed into a pod these days. Forget recall, can you even remember what show you were watching? The recession has taken a big bite out of magazine ads, but replacing full pages with crappy little 8th of a page units only makes you feel like a schmuck for paying over $5 at newsstand for the issue. Not to mention the desperate chase for ad dollars that now has marketing messages running on covers.

I realize that it is a highly troubled business, but once you get used to commercial free satellite radio (which by the way, if you have a subscription for your car, you can also access all 200+ channels online all day and night) you will never listen to another radio ad as long as you live. Too many, too loud and massively stupid scripts.

Now all of the attention has turned to online advertising with nay-sayers claiming it a disaster zone because of low click through rates for banners, ad blockers and a fair amount of accounting fraud. In the other corner are happy advertisers who are getting ads at fire-sale rates and learning more about their customers than ever before in history. Something the FTC is looking into with an arched brow.

Line up 100 people and 99 of them will say they hate advertising. The public annually ranks advertising as a profession somewhere between serial killers and mortgage brokers. But somehow, for reasons they don't even understand themselves, they reach for one brand over another one. They bring ads into stores to show the clerks what they'd like. They quote ad copy in conversations (or taunts). They hum ditties written to be remembered and associated with brands. They click through from the impression level to actual purchase. They call the 8oo number. They search for products by their brand names. They place cents-off coupons on the check-out counter. They quote from ads trying to impress sales retailers with their insider product knowledge. They post ads in their social media space and send them to friends. They send in the little reply cards.

Too bad Garfield isn't one of them.