Will TV fade away and disappear? Of course not, and Cappo is the first to tell us that. But new ways of handling the challenges of commercial clutter (and of personal video recorders such as TiVo) must be innovated. Is the print medium at risk in the future? Perhaps, and that means newspapers most of all. (As this book points out, newspapers have a problem because they own their costly and inefficient printing presses, and are committed to an antiquated distribution system consisting of trucks rumbling through metropolitan areas to deliver their burdens to readers' doors.) The Internet, which came out of nowhere in the 90's -- and caught most advertising professionals flat-footed -- will continue to have a growing and enormous impact on consumers and businesses. (FYI, Cappo tells us that a study covering usage of all media forms revealed that by April, 2002 fully 25% of respondents were getting their daily dose of news ONLINE. Amazing.)
I'm sort of an old codger with a lot of years logged at advertising agencies. But Cappo's book makes me wish I were a kid of 21 again -- bright-eyed and launching into a career in the provocative and ever-changing world of advertising.
So if you're looking for an informative, entertaining, "short course" on the past, present and future of the ad biz, buy this book. I gave it 5 stars. (And I'd have given it 6 if Amazon allowed that over-the-top option.)
I guess that means no one watches TV anymore right?
I have not read this book either, but I had to make a comment to off-set the previous one...
Tv advertising, especially, is losing its edge.
The Word of Mouth (Permission Marketing included) and the Word of Mouse (Internet-based, Multi-media driven Marketing Communications Tools) have made the word, advertising obsolete.
Read this book if you are still in the old age industry of Advertising--especially the TV Commercials production fields.