An antidote to all the hype

There’s a lot of crap talked about the power of social media and how it’s transforming marketing. It’s frequently exhausting (and annoying) to read the idiotic ramblings and unqualified pontifications of many bloggers asserting that the Internet has killed the old rules of marketing.

One blogger, the Ad Contrarian, acts as a bracing, acerbic and amusing antidote to all the hype. My grey hairs particularly like his aphorism that “Marketers always overestimate the attraction of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior.”  Even if you’re a hyperactive social media marketer or a died-in-the-wool B2B marketer (the Ad Contrarian talks mainly about consumer marketing), you’ll find real insight and humour on his site. Recent weeks have seen a fun debate about web advertising and its impact on brand building. I particularly like his ‘10 bullshit professions‘ (though what’s a third base umpire do when he or she is at home?).  And he’s written a beautifully written and insightful free e-Book about consumer advertising in the modern age.

Check him out. You won’t be disappointed.