Its a book which analyses the growth of Advertising as an industry over 150 years. I guess a better way to put it is as per the title. Its more about the attention than advertising. This is not a book review . i want to focus on my takeways on a wonderful read and i also want to make it clear that i am writing it after 30 days after finishing the book just to understand what all has captured my imagination and what all i have digested. The following is an attempt in that order.
The book deals in depth with how advertising or the urge to capture attention started. It claims to be talking for the world but in my opinion it is more about America and generalised to the world.
Over the course of 150 years, one interesting thing was, as a society, advertising was considered bad during a phase and considered good during a phase. The cycle keeps repeating. What is important to note is that the protagonists of this industry reinvent themselves with something new and continue to be one step ahead. Whats important to note here is that they are not way ahead of the masses. They are just one step ahead.
Another fascinating thing was how things that started as something ideological or for some cause turned into something else altogether. The march of women who decided to smoke publicly or the creation of huffington post or buzzfeed. It is to great credit of these entrepreneurs that despite starting as something different they pivoted after reading the pulse of the masses and never lost the plot to be at the forefront.. One more fascinating thing is when you get to know the history of how some of these entities came to existence, some of their holier than thou attitude goes for a toss and they lose their sheen.
The rivalry between NBC vs Columbia or Pepsi vs Coca Cola is captured superbly. NBC vs Columbia is dealt in great details and shows how there is no one way to success.
The advertising rivalry between schools of thoughts which can be broadly stated as Be bold on your marketing pitch even if it doesn't have correlation with the product and the other about building the brand as a positive identity is a fascinating comparison. Both approaches have their successes and failures.
Propaganda during war has got its due place. Never realised that capturing the attention of your population in any which way may be the mightiest weapon in the current era.
Personalities as brands is also a good section. Many of the organisations complain about inhuman/greedy bargains some of these personalities push them to. But when you look at 150 year pattern, you see that anyone who has had a upper hand has indulged in the same thing.
As a yahoo messenger user in India, love how these companies compared chat rooms with freedom of speech and came about with logic like these chat rooms provided women with self expression. I don't completely agree with it but loved the creative audacity of the teams involved.
Welcome to the tech world of google and fb. as an entrepreneur sometimes i feel disturbed when i see a feature i am developing being already available in the market. but after i realised how big companies have also adopted good features in their earlier days, it gives a sense of relief. The hunger for the attention of the users sometimes makes me wonder if these companies will consider tapping into the attention of other wild animals also.
The public outcry against big tech companies is something that i feel is a good thing. but after reading the book, i feel a bit jittery. jittery because in the history of 150 years, these outcries have been present against unfair practises. improvements have been made but the fact remains such public mobilisation is a short term thing and hence one has to make the best of use of such a sentiment for the greater good.
Lastly, the thing i liked the most was across the chapters i felt a great connection. I have been hearing this phrase that world is more connected than ever before and this book provided great comparisons from an indian context. Cable television started inthe US in say 1930s-40s and it took almost 50-60 years to come to India. Playstations of somekind were in US in 1980s and it came to India in 1990s. Shows like who wants to be a millionaire started since 1960s but it came to india in 2000. Google came to india may be 3-5 years after its launch in US and facebook may be after 2 -3years and now Netflix has come. the gap is narrowing every single day and there is a possibility that reverse can happen now. That is the power of Tech.. Superb it is.
Reading the book makes you cognisant of the age in which we are living. what we are facing has been fine tuned over 150 years and the race has taken many dimensions. The new tech of decentralisation- blockchain can dent it in my opinion but human attention will still remain the prized commodity. But, reading it will atleast make you aware of whats going around and will make you respond to the advertising stimuli rather than react. Also, history is replete with examples when something new completely alters the existing paradigm for the better no matter how big the incumbent is. Keep Tinkering. Thank you Tim Wu.
