Comments - The paradox of advertising

This article starts with a commentary about the paradoxical nature of advertising from Pierre Berthon at Bentley College and Leyland Pitt at Simon Fraser University, which asks serious questions about the nature of advertising and the inherent conflict in the increasing advertising expenditure levels in markets that are highly competitive, raising the possibility that advertising does not make markets more efficient.

Comments

Professor John Ford Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA

The Comments section for this issue will veer slightly from the format that has been adopted for the previous three issues. We recently received a commentary about the paradoxical nature of advertising from Pierre Berthon at Bentley College and Leyland Pitt at Simon Fraser University, which we felt could serve as an interesting focal point for discussion. Berthon and Pitt raise serious questions about the nature of advertising and the inherent conflict in the increasing advertising expenditure levels in markets that are highly competitive, raising the possibility that advertising does...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands