Obsessive Branding Disorder

I linked to a piece in The Huffington Post awhile back because it was about one of my favorite subjects:

What's a Little Marketing Between Friends?
By Lucas Conley

... When marketers mingle among consumers, the results are often more artifice than advertising. Posing as consumers and littering the Internet with bogus comments and reviews, today's unscrupulous marketers champion their wares via fake blogs ("flogs"), artificial grass-roots campaigns ("astroturf"), and surreptitious product placements in every corner of new media.

Then a few months ago I heard about a soon-to-be-released book by Mr. Conley:

Obsessive Branding Disorder

The world is more branded than ever before: Americans encounter anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 ads a day. Increasingly, brands vie for our attention from insidious angles that target our emotional responses (scent, taste, sound, and touch).

That's another subject I've written and talked about. In my book there's a chapter titled The Branding Circus. It's the one that unnerves ad and marketing folks the most. So you can imagine what they'll think of a book thoroughly researched (and thoroughly entertaining) that's all about branding and how dumb it's become.

Lucas Conley takes on even another subject I've discussed now and then: product placement (aka Madison & Vine). Here are a couple of blog comments from 2005 where I yack about all three subjects. (Scroll for the second one.)

So ... Mr. Conley of Fast Company is fast becoming a fast hero of mine.

Obsessive Branding Disorder is required reading. Even more impressive: it's fun reading. A business book with twists and turns, shocks and surprises? Trust me, they're there.

Also, keep an eye on the author's blog.

No doubt Obsessive Branding Disorder will get the "Nyren Bump" courtesy of this post. The book will skyrocket on the bestseller lists. However, less astute media and marketing analysts will likely attribute this sharp rise in sales to Mr. Conley's appearance on The Colbert Report tonight. Pure hogwash. It'll all be thanks to me.

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Full Obfuscation: Did the author send me a free copy of his book? I'm not telling.
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