Clay,

Everything, as always, fascinating in a way I can’t quantify.

I do wonder though if simply quantifying things counts as over-delivery; perhaps, the unbusy advertising director — not quite the same thing as lazy –– wasn’t at least honest about Wanamaker’s paradox. To extend your metaphor, if I was in the market for a well-deserved treat and stumbled across a full-page ad for Ford trucks opposite the funnies it might inspire me to reward myself for all my hard work. No one would ever know why I ended up at the Ford dealership –– I certainly wouldn’t –– but a sale would ‘convert’. The dealer would be happy.

Of course that Ford dealer now, with AdWords, can pay Google a fee for all those people who search for trucks in the local zip, and that same bidding war that broke out with the Toyota lot isn’t magically alleviated by the collapse of local newspapers but exacerbated to the degree that you now have to pay to advertise when people search for your company’s own name lest the pesky Toyotans have the top paid slot.

Beyond this, the poor dealer has to watch this busily for meaning when there is none beyond competition and the old truth, mentioned above, that half of all ad dollars spent are wasted –– only it’s not possible to know which half.

A lot of businesses overcharge when in a near-monopoly. I don’t doubt this was true of newspapers then, it is certainly true of Facebook and Google now –– just disbursed across the globe. I see no improvement narrative there. If anything, the death of the local ad director (and the funnies) took with it a voice that knew its audience, that wrote stories about local baseball that made everyone seem as heroic as the Mets, and that would make good for that ad that was printed upside down.

Cheers,

Geoff