EXPERTLY PLANNED
John Fanning on why Paul Feldwick’s The Anatomy of Humbug is a must read
Just in case you may not get to the end of this review let me start by saying this book is essential reading for anyone in our business. So there! The author of The Anatomy of Humbug is Paul Feldwick, who was head of planning in BMP, one of the agencies which invented the concept of account planning in the early 1970’s. A frequent writer on the subject over the years he had a regular column in Admap and he now works as a brand strategy consultant.
All that experience is poured into a tightly-written literate book representing his definitive account of how advertising works; a subject still causing controversy after over a century of debate. The book begins with a discussion about an issue covered many times in my reviews; the historical provincialism of the marketing communications business.
Feldwick has his own way of describing the issue: advertising people have created implicit narratives, giving them permission not to think about the past. He outlines three different narratives. The enlightenment one assumes that the past was primitive but that now we are all enlightened and that anything from the past is of no relevance.
The ‘golden age’ narrative, favoured by veterans, that is anyone over the age of 30, believes that the best years were in the past, before the baleful influence of procurement departments, lack of production money, risk adverse clients and no long lunches where the real work was done. The final narrative, ‘year zero’ is a variation on the first; the world has changed, the consumer has changed and the old rules no longer apply.
He quotes Keynes’s line about practical men who see themselves as immune to high-falutin’ theories being the unwitting slaves of some defunct economist. Feldwick doesn’t want us to fall into that trap so he embarks on a detailed discussion of the main debate dominating theories of how advertising works for over 100 years – salesmanship versus seduction.
The former has a long history and in spite of coming under fire for being simplistic or naïve it is still the underlying theory behind many of today’s best marketing communications campaigns. It is based on rational persuasion and associated with words like, reason why, benefit, proposition, conviction, recall and impact. The seduction model relies more on the power of images, emotion, symbols and the subconscious mind.
Late 19th century and early 20th century advertisers and admen practised and wrote about the salesmanship model at a time when direct mail was still powerful and sales could be directly attributed to individual ads. There are interesting accounts of some of the colourful characters of this era, including copywriter Claude Hopkins whose 1924 publication, Scientific Advertising, sold an astonishing eight million copies.
It was a time dominated by rules and systems, the well-known AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) model was introduced as early as 1903, and Feldwick entertainingly explains their continuing appeal; “something about the human psyche, especially the male psyche, loves the idea of comparing scores, league tables and rank orders”. The first concerted attack on the salesmanship model came from the American creative revolution led by Bill Bernbach in the 1950’s who famously stated that ‘advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens not to be a science but an art’.
But Bernbach did not have it all his own way and his great rival in New York, Rosser Reeves, instigator of the USP (unique selling point), a classic example of the salesmanship approach, held equal sway; “the consumer tends to remember just one thing from an advertisement, one strong claim or one strong concept, every advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer – the proposition must be so strong that it can move millions”.
But the seduction model was strongly favoured by the UK creative revolution which followed in the 1970’s. It was kick-started by a series of influential papers attacking the salesmanship model from the London office of JWT, often referred to at the time as ‘The University of Advertising’. These papers argued that advertising is not principally a matter of rational persuasion; ‘that it works in ways of which the audience is not entirely aware, that it reinforces or nudges or charms or seduces more effectively than it converts or educates’.
But perhaps the best case for the seduction approach comes from Martin Boase of BMP whose definition of good advertising is “when you invite yourself into someone’s living room for 30 seconds you have a duty not to bore them or insult them by shouting at them, on the other hand, if you can make them smile or show them something interesting or enjoyable, if you are a charming guest then they may like you a bit better and they may even be more likely to buy your product”. Feldwick says either model can work; it’s about circumstances.
The book’s second main theme is that although the salesmanship and seduction models have tended to dominate the debate about how advertising works there are four other, less commented on, models that need to be considered; salience, spin, showmanship and social connection. (There is something about the psyche, especially the psyche of those who write marketing books, which loves the idea of packaging their theories alliteratively).
Salience, simply keeping your name in front of the public, has been gaining prominence partly because of the excellent Binet and Field analyses of the IPA effectiveness awards case studies. They made a strong case for fame often being the main ingredient in successful campaigns. Spin views marketing communication from a public relations perspective, which involves making your brand famous but working from behind the scenes. Showmanship takes its cue from PT Barnum where the adman turns impresario creating spectacles, events or happenings designed to make a splash and keep a brand in the public eye.
Main topic: Paul Feldwick quotes Keynes’s line about practical men who see themselves as immune to high-falutin’ theories being the unwitting slaves of some defunct economist. Not wishing to fall into that trap, Feldwick discusses the main debate that has dominated theories of how advertising works for over a century – salesmanship versus seduction.
Social connection is more complicated based on the communication theories of Paul Watzlawick, who emphasised the fact that all communication is not just about content but about “the way you say it”, which forms a relationship with the recipient, a relationship which is critical to how a brand is perceived. Awareness of this model should lead to greater concentration on tone of voice, connotative use of language and executional details.
The model suggests the elements that conventional advertising theory has treated as peripheral may be critically important. Think of the great Barry’s Tea Christmas train-set radio ad by Irish International. Catherine Donnelly’s copy is spectacular but so too is Peter Caffrey’s voice and the attention to detail in the sound effects play a key part.
I’m not sure that the distinction between the four additional models is as clear as it is between salesmanship and seduction, but it is important to know the various ways in which ads work. The Anatomy of Humbug is essential reading for three reasons. Firstly, an understanding of the way the debate about how advertising works has evolved leaves us better equipped to cope with the future. John Hegarty made a similar point to the advertising community when he said that history was not about the past, it was about the future.
Secondly, we are reminded of the many different ways in which advertising may work and that more regular consideration of the different models can open up new areas of creativity. Finally, Feldwick continually stresses the danger of relying too mechanically on a single model with a memorable line; “the quest for certainty and the creation of highly effective advertising are mutually incompatible”.
John Fanning lectures on branding and marketing communications at the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School and chairs Bord Bia’s Brand Forum.
