Weekend Reading: “The End of Advertising” by Andrew Essex

Weekend Reading: “The End of Advertising” by Andrew Essex. For the 127th episode of The Marketing Book Podcast, I interviewed Andrew Essex, author of The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die, and the Creative Resurrection to Come. In The End of Advertising, he explains that the ad apocalypse is upon us: millions are downloading ad-blocking software, and still more are paying subscription premiums to avoid ads. The $600 billion industry is now careening toward outright extinction, after having taken for granted a captive audience for too long, leading to lazy, overabundant, and annoying ads. Instead, he challenges global marketers to innovate their way to a better ad-free future. With trenchant wit and razor-sharp insights, he presents an essential new vision of where the smart businesses could be headed—a broad playing field where ambitious marketing campaigns provide utility, services, gifts, patronage of the arts, and even blockbuster entertainment. In this utopian landscape, ads could become so enticing that people would pay—yes, pay—to see them. The author reflects on having been in two industries that were going through wrenching, permanent change… I was experiencing a painful feeling of déjà vu. I realized that the same thing that had happened to the magazine industry was now happening to advertising. It was getting elbowed out.