Marketing Profs

Don't agree?

Please ask your wife, husband, or significant other—in other words, the nearest typical consumer—to answer the following seven questions:

1. Does viewing pop-up ads on your computer curl your toes in orgasmic delight? Yes or No?
2. Does a mailbox filled with junk mail cause your palms to itch and sweat with nervous anticipation? Yes or No?
3. Do you suffer from outbursts of violent anger when a TV commercial is interrupted by a TV movie? Yes or No?
4. Do you prance around the parking lot with ecstatic abandon whenever you find a flyer on your car's windshield? Yes or No?
5. Does keeping a phone next to your soup spoon on your dinner table (for fear of missing the next telemarketer's call) help your digestion? Yes or No?
6. Do you drink pots of black coffee at 10 pm so you can stay awake to watch 30-minute infomercials at 4 am? Yes or No?
7. Do you drool at the thought of spending $300 on an iPhone just so you can see interactive ads on its big, cool screen? Yes or No?

Have I made my point? Yes or No?

Advertising is dead. If you're a marketer... save your money.

Consumers have been over-advertised to and over-sold.

Unless you're conducting a white sale, fire sale, or going-out-of-business sale—and halving or quartering your prices—advertising won't get you a bang, a whimper- or a nickel for your buck. Not anymore.

The only ads that still earn their keep are those in newspapers and on supermarket windows:

Big SALE
Buy 1 Can of Campbell Soup for 89 Cents
and Get a 2nd Can—FREE!
Supplies limited!

Or something like that.