“Advertising is the principal reason why the business man has come to inherit the earth.”

- James Randolph Adams, quoted in John P. Bradley, Leo F. Daniels & Thomas C. Jones, The International Dictionary of Thoughts, 1969, Chicago, IL: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co., p. 12.

“Advertising is of the very essence of democracy. An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow.”

- Bruce Barton (1955), chairman of BBDO, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 82.

“Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret . . . to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.”

- Leo Burnett, quoted by Joan Kufrin, Leo Burnett: Star Reacher(1995), Chicago, IL: Leo Burnett Company, Inc., p. 54.

“Advertising is what you do when you can’t go see somebody. That’s all it is.”

- Fairfax Cone (1963), ad agency partner, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 84.

“Advertising is the life of trade.”

- Calvin Coolidge, quoted in John P. Bradley, Leo F. Daniels & Thomas C. Jones, The International Dictionary of Thoughts, 1969, Chicago, IL: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co., p. 13.

“Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.”

- Northrop Frye, quoted in Robert I. Fitzhenry, The Fitzhenry & Whiteside Book of Quotations, 1993, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, p. 18.

“The art of publicity is a black art.”

- Learned Hand, American jurist, quoted in Robert I. Fitzhenry, The Fitzhenry & Whiteside Book of Quotations, 1993, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, p. 19.

“[A]dvertising is a symbol-manipulating occupation.”

- S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action (1964), New York: Harcourt, p. 268.

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An interesting viral ad for Wonderbra.  (Calm down boys)!

I love The Apprentice for it’s cringeworthy characters, their hapless delivery (or non-delivery as the case may be), and their boardroom lynchings (and occasional disembowelments courtesy of each-other not to mention The Great Man).

But it worries me that the methods preached by Sir Alan - especially where the marketing and advertising are concerned - seem to be a tad archaic in the age of web 2.0 and the ethos of getting up-close-and-personal with customers.

It’s all about advertising in the traditional mould - TV adverts etc… (why when we’ve all got sky plus and iPlayer? who doesn’t fast-forward the ads)? Unfortunately this is still how a lot of the big corps think it’s done as illustrated by Sir Alan.

Wednesday’s episode was a great exercise in the use of Personas - each team developed a rounded individual that represented the potential buyer of their perfumes. A good start to getting to know your audience that did appear to be anchored in a teeny bit of user-testing…

…In a real-world scenario this could have been developed into a real conversation with potentially millions of future customers using a whole host of tactics that don’t even come close to matching the budgets that traditional mass media demands. When Alex and Helene were asked how the dinky split bottle idea would impact the bottom line, and the advertising budget, they were flummoxed!

They could have taken a leaf out of Proctor and Gamble’s viral marketing book and reached millions of potential customers, in this instance, teenagers virally, through their “Tremor” advocates - a network of teens recruited to chat about their products to their mates. .

Or indeed, apply some guerrilla-style tactics like Carlsberg: USA - moles going into bars asking for Carlsberg (the barman never heard of it)! and a couple of days later a Carlsberg salesman arrives…; Fake Passports;  £10 notes … the genius is endless.

* This thought was developed after inspiring discussion with the DECTATOR, who is the source of much knowledge (being omnipotent and all that).