• Ad Age, Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:18 AM

Ad Age critic and public radio host Bob Garfield takes apart the advertising world as we've known it and, as he would have it, loved it not so much in his new book, Chaos Scenario. Jeff Goodby herewith "gently" takes apart Bob Garfield, or at least his gleeful chronicle of the demise of mass-market hucksterism and the media it has supported.

Goodby allows that the book is "well researched," but he takes issue not only with the central thesis but also with some of the examples rendered to support it. For instance, people may like content generated by other non-commissioned representatives of the hoi polloi but the consumer-generated (and consumer-chosen) cover of Garfield's book is proof positive that people don't always know what's best for them. So there.

Anyway, Goodby thinks advertising has a future, and he quotes one of my favorite cranky-but-perspicacious ad gurus in support of that quirky notion: "Fifty years ago, San Francisco advertising man Howard Gossage said, 'People read what they want to read. Sometimes it's advertising.' It still could be, Bob," writes Goody, before doling out a "gentle two stars" to his effort.

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