Bob Garfield details the death of the mass media + marketing relationship

Another look at the end of the mass media model. We get that it's toast. What is next? Hopefully, Bob Garfield's upcoming book will have some interesting ideas on where we are headed.

Yet more doom and gloom about the death of the mass media model. But at least this version from Ad Age is pretty eloquent as sky-is-falling prose goes. Bob Garfield says:

There is no longer a need to warn of a gathering Chaos Scenario, in which the yin of media and yang of marketing fly apart, symbiotic no more. There is no need to seed doubt about the internet's prospects as an advertising medium, nor otherwise be a prophet of doom.

Chicken Little, don your hardhat. Nudged by recession, doom has arrived.

The toll will be so vast -- and the institutions of media and marketing are so central to our economy, our culture, our democracy and our very selves -- that it's easy to fantasize about some miraculous preserver of "reach" dangling just out of reach. We need "mass," so mass, therefore, must survive.

Alas, economies are unsentimental and denial unproductive. The post-advertising age is under way.

Garfield is optimistic about the future:

This isn't about the end of commerce or the end of marketing or news or entertainment. All of the above are finding new expressions online, and in time will flourish thanks to the very digital revolution that is now ravaging them. The future is bright.

Not so much regarding the present:

The sky is falling, the frog in the pot has come to a boil and, oh yeah, we are, most of us, exquisitely, irretrievably ******.

So Garfield provides more doomsday. But very little about what is to come from all the creative destruction. Garfield's new book, The Chaos Scenario, will hopefully have a stronger focus on what lies ahead. Looks like Garfield will argue that the key is for us, as marketers, to shut up and listen.

I had a professor at MSU who was a creative big shot at a major Chicago agency in the 70s. Lots of stories from him about famous actors, luxurious hotels, three-martini lunches and major parties. A glamorous life built around creating :30 and :60 TV messages.

I think now is a much more interesting time to work in marketing. No one likes to see the job loss and pain created by the fundamental changes taking place. But we are back in the wild west and setting the stage for the future of marketing. What could be more engaging and exciting than that?