Obvious Adams by Robert R. Updegraff

This is the centenary audio edition of this very short business book (it took less than an hour to listen all the way through, even including the final chapter written promoting advertising services by “marketing expert Sam Waterfall” who clearly bought the rights to the Obvious Adams name. Still, I took a few ideas from the book — that with analysis and thought you can discover obvious things that are easy to overlook.

The real Obvious Adams, if there was such a man, made his name finding obvious points overlooked by fancier, smarter ad copy writers. He improved a peach campaign by stressing the peaches went from tree to table in six hours. He improved a cake promotion by making the packages more cake-like and offering samples to customers. He imporved the fortunes of a hat-maker by making sure their ads focussed on the pictures of the hat, not the hat on a model’s body. He promoted a paper manufacturer by stressing things the manufacturer did that all producers did (hand checking products, for example) but folks didn’t know, with a key observation that it didn’t matter that people in the business know what was commonplace, it’s what the customers know (or not) that counts.

Obvious stuff, but still valuable.

No. 4 of 50 books I intend to read and review in 2025.

I’m Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at my conversation school in Abiko, Japan, I write and illustrate textbooks for non-native speakers of English, release Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, paint, and write essays and Our Man in Abiko, a monthly  newsletter   highlighting good writing in English, often about about Japan, art, crime fiction and teaching.