Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman’s Best Bits From ReThinkTV
No-one loves a contrarian more than B&T, usually because they reflect our own out-dated and counter culture viewpoints. And if there’s anything we love more than a contrarian, it’s one who’s come from within the industry they now pillory. In this narrow sector of life, Bob Hoffman is the very tippy top of our loves in life.
Rather than give you the whole speech, ThinkTV has promised it’ll be available online by next week, we’ll share it then, here’s a selection of our favourite quotes from the advertiser turned advertising critic.
So in no particular order:
Quoting Winston Churchill: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
“Online advertising is a train wreck of biblical proportions. Half of what you pay is not viewable, ad fraud is rampant.”
“You’re more likely to complete Navy Seal training than click on a banner ad.”
“Brand preference exists, but brand love is a juvenile fantasy.”
“We have a lot of things to care deeply about, smart marketers assume we don’t care about our brand of frozen chicken strips.”
“Give yourself the wonderful freedom of scepticism”
“Marketing to young people is narcissism disguised as strategy”
“You don’t market to old people because you fucking hate them.”
“If Americans over 50 were an economy, they would be the third largest economy in the world.”
“Marketers have lived in a self-invented dreamland and have lost touch with consumers, which I like to call people. Consumers want clarity and simplicity, we marketers want to complicate the shit out of everything.”
“As a result of our reliance on digital technology, we’ve made an unconscionable leap of logic that because we spend a lot of time on the web we think it’s a great advertising medium. I spend 16 hours a day in my socks that doesn’t make them a great advertising medium.”
“Online ad fraud is on track to become the second largest source of income for organised crime syndicates by 2025 after the illicit drugs trade.”
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