BadMen: How Advertising Went From A Minor Annoyance To A Major Menace by Bob Hoffman
Bob Hoffman is a best-selling author, speaker, and advisor. He’s one of the most sought-after international speakers on advertising and marketing.
He’s the author of two other books: Marketers Are from Mars, Consumers Are from New Jersey and 101 Contrarian Idea About Advertising. He is the author of the popular Ad Contrarian blog, named one of the world’s most influential marketing and advertising blogs by Business Insider.
Bob has been the CEO of two independent ad agencies and the US operations of an international agency. But who is Bob Hoffman really? Here’s what other have said about him.
The Wall Street Journal says he’s “caustic yet truthful.” Time Magazine calls him “fabulously irreverent.” The Financial Times says he’s responsible for “savage critiques of digital hype.”And Inc. magazine says he “pulls absolutely no punches”
The Host’s Perspective:
In BadMen, Hoffman reminds us of our longstanding fear of totalitarian governments. We feared they would know everything about us, follow us everywhere, track our every move, and keep secret files about us which could be used to influence our lives in ways that were only vaguely visible to us.
The problem is that we’re well on our way to such a nightmare. Except it isn’t our government that knows everything about us, follows us everywhere, tracks our every move, and keep secret files about us.
It’s the marketing industry, and if you read the book you’ll be astonished at how much more information is being collected about you than you realize.
BadMen is about “surveillance marketing” which is powered largely by advertisers through the tracking of our movements on the web via what’s known as “ad tech.”
Another big topic exposed in the book is the subject of online ad fraud. According to the World Federation of Advertisers, by 2025 online ad fraud, enabled substantially by tracking, may become the second largest source of criminal income in the world.
If you’re an advertiser who feels like you’ve been hemorrhaging money with online ads, you should trust your gut on this one and read BadMen. You’ll be thoroughly entertained. You’ll be angered. And you’ll want to start taking action to prevent being taken advantage of.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes
BadMen: How Advertising Went From A Minor Annoyance To A Major Menace by Bob Hoffman
Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey by Bob Hoffman (Marketing Book Podcast)
New York Times article, “We Can’t Trust Facebook to Regulate Itself” (nytimes.com)
Bob Hoffman’s Website (typeagroup.com)
Bob Hoffman’s Blog (adcontrarian.com)
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