Bloggers Hate Bogusky's Book But Didn't Bother to Read It
Poor Alex Bogusky. America’s hottest adman must be thinking, What have I done wrong? Fresh from nursing his wounds after a vicious encounter with Gawker (which he deserved), the Crispin Porter + Bogusky chief is being pilloried in the blogosphere for writing a book that is only 150 pages long. In large type.
It all started with a negative review of Bogusky’s book, “Baked In,” in the LA Times. Reviewer Dan Neil said, “Running at a mere 150 pages of big type, the book is the ad guys’ parochial perspective on why advertising and marketing so often fall flat. Surprise — they say it’s not the ad guys’ fault. It’s the products’ fault.”
Blogs — who follow Bogusky obsessively in part because his agency’s web site automatically links back to any mention of him — piled on immediately. The injustice (albeit a small one, but it’s still unfair) is that virtually no one other than reviewer Reid has actually bothered to read Bogusky’s book.
AdFreak said: the book is “obvious, its tone as clichéd and arrogant and its conclusions as wrong, or at least impractical.” The writer appears not to have read the book.
AgencySpy said: “The book is a skin-deep advice column on melding product development with marketing — a common practice these days — that doesn’t give away any secrets.” The writer did not read the book mentions nothing about the content of the book, but reviewed the reviews instead. UPDATE: AgencySpy’s Matt Van Hoven sent two emails to BNET insisting he has read the book: “It’s just not true - I did read the book. It’s sitting in front of me right now with post-its marking interesting pages sticking out of it.” Apologies for the error.
MediaPost said: “it’s short-winded (150 pages of large type), self-serving (why don’t marketers realize that the ad guys are the smartest guys in the room?), cliché-ridden (break down silos!) and self-evident (better products tend to sell better, duh).” The writer appears not to have read the book.
Not everyone hates it. People who have actually bothered to read it seem to like it. Amazons reviews are generally positive.
Ad Age’s reviewer seemed to like it, but if you read between the lines it appears he attended a book launch party rather than actually reading it.
But the prize for chutzpah goes to the blog of JWT Bangkok. They praised the book without reading it: “I confess I haven’t read it yet but their miniblog on it is really interesting, you can find it here.”
UPDATE: George Parker of Adscam also liked it but didn’t read it: “I absolutely agree with something Alex said during the launch of his new book… “Baked In,” which I won’t piss on, ‘cos I haven’t read it yet…”
Conclusion: Bloggers are stupid. Bogusky will sell some books. (And I didn’t read it either.)
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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