“It is a story built on shabby journalism, ad industry buffoonery, and the willful suspension of skepticism on a scale unprecedented during my time in the advertising business.” -Bob Hoffman
Bob Hoffman a.k.a. The Ad Contrarian is blowing his whistle. He’s crying foul, demanding reparations and working hard to wake you and me up. Why? I’ll tell you why. TV is why.
Hoffman and his cohorts at Hoffman/Lewis make TV spots for a living and he’s sick and tired of all the nonsense in the media about TV’s death, when the form is not even sick.
Here’s some Hoffmanian ammo:
- TV viewing is at an all-time high. The average American now watches more television than ever before.
- YouTube, Hulu, iPhones and all the other online video and cellphones combined account for less than 1% of all video viewed.
- TiVo and other DVRs account for less than 5% of all TV viewing.
- Fewer than 3% of total tv spots are being missed as a result of TiVo ad-skipping.
- TV viewership has grown over 7% since 2000.<.li>
Hoffman warns, “If you (advertising) weenies don’t get up off your butts and do something soon, we’ll all wind up writing freaking meta tags for Google.”
David,
Thanks. Just want to clarify — we also do plenty of online/digital work. Just trying to bring some balance back to a “narrative” gone hysterical.
Of course you do, Bob. What good is a TV spot without a drive to Web component?
In trying ti figure out tomorrow, we have sacrificed an entire industry today. That my friends is the ultimate myopia.
I follow TAC and learn A LOT…every time. If I could sell my little shop (which I’m about to do), I would send him my resume and see if he’d hire me to make coffee. Love this guy.