Where Did It All Go Wrong?: Adventures At The Dunning Kruger Peak Of Advertising

by Eaon Pritchard

A proto-meme is beginning to ‘go critical’. If you’re looking at this book you might even be a part of that meme. Somewhere the advertising business kinda lost the plot, we’re not sure exactly sure where. So many incompetents, who can’t know we are incompetent because the skills we need to produce the right answers are exactly the skills we lack in order to know what a right answer is. What happens now? Who knows? But let’s tackle it head-on with punk rock, cheap philosophy and evolutionary psychology and take a hair-raising ride to the Dunning-Kruger peak of advertising…

Genres: Business

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 11, 2018

Reviews

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A healthy dose of realism and skepticism for adland after its infinite stampedes into the new and shiny. Full of sarcasm and humour, sprinkled with science and backed by anecdotes from the music world. Often feels more like a series of articles than a book (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you), and could well do with a few rounds of proof reading.

[Jack Frogameni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended to me by the President of the Ad Agency that I work at.

I certainly loved some of the references in this book: British football, proto-punk (shoutout the Sex Pistols), and pop-culture. I will say, I wasn't the biggest fan of Eaon's writing style. It's obvious Eaon is VERY well read, but sometimes the information feels a bit esoteric, and his diction is a bit cumbersome. Also, I struggled to find a key takeaway from this book.

Candidly, it reminds me of some of the cynical punks I hung out with during my time at the University of Mass (home of the Pixies). Yes, you're anti-everything... but what are you for exactly?

However, I liked that Pritchard challenges the cliche of marketers being 'storytellers'. It is an overplayed trope you see all the time, and he raises a good point that as a marketer, you may be a 'storyteller' but realistically you're cherrypicking the hell out of the details for the benefit of your client.

[Cheyney Lare · Rating 2 out of 5]

pritchard has an incredibly frustrating formula for each chapter:

1) introduce (ramble about) a seemingly random story from history. could be about ben and jerry’s, rats, or watches

2) tie in a loosely related psychological phenomenon

3) reiterate his pessimistic view of advertising and agencies

4) …? that’s it? what’s your solution?

needless to say, I am not a fan

[Lam Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential read for anyone in Mkting and Ad industry

If you are confused to navigate in this increasingly complex world, this is a good, easy and witty read. Please read and stop the bullshit in the Mkting and Ad world!

[Regan Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top shelf extended rant from an industry veteran with an awful lot of prickly yet very well reasoned opinions. You'll also probably learn a lot about the history of punk and EDM.

[Andrea Corelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tremendously Wellington written, but the content is a stile exercise wjth little takeaway.