Why Does The Pedlar Sing?: What Creativity Really Means in Advertising

by Paul Feldwick

Throughout history, selling and entertainment have gone hand in hand - from the medieval pedlar and the medicine show, to generations of TV commercials featuring song and dance, comedy, and cartoon animals, right up to today’s celebrities who launch their own multi-million dollar brands. There are good reasons for this; we now understand better than ever before the psychological and sociological reasons why apparent frivolity creates serious business benefits. And yet the advertising business today seems reluctant to embrace its powerful links with popular culture. Misled on one side by managerial myths of rationality and logic, and on the other by a cultish misunderstanding of ‘creativity’, it risks forgetting how to appeal to the public, and how to build successful brands. As a result, evidence suggests, today’s advertising is less liked and less effective than ever before. But it is not too late to reverse this trend. Advertisers and agencies who read this book will rediscover why the pedlar sings, and despite what we’ve all been told, why people do buy from clowns. They will be inspired to make their advertising more popular, more famous, more fun again – and much more effective. ‘This is a fabulous book. ...It is possibly the book I would most highly recommend to anyone in marketing.’ Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2021

Reviews

[S.P. Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the first wave of the pandemic, advertisers from retailers to telecoms, food to insurance, appeared to all have received the same script for their TV commercials, which was executed in a remarkably similar fashion worldwide: plinky piano music, an "empathetic" yet rather sombre tone, vignettes of human despair and hope, and a promise of "being there for you."

Meanwhile, on social media, people created and shared their own entertainment: OK, there were plenty of mawkish poems, but much inventive and fun stuff too - horse-riding and mountain-climbing illusions created within the confines of a small apartment, toilet-paper jokes a-plenty and song parodies that most of us still have stuck in their heads. Which seems unlikely for any of those "we're here for you" ads, let alone whichever brands they were attached to.

Those few weeks really brought into focus the challenge facing the advertising industry today, which Paul Feldwick examines in his latest book, "Why does the pedlar sing?". Advertising is less liked and less effective than it was a decade or two ago.

While many of those in the industry may put the blame at the door of the client, for not being brave enough to buy their edgy, disruptive ideas, Paul Feldwick asks the question: what is good advertising, actually? Is it the bold, kick-ass, "stuff that matters" that's celebrated on LinkedIn and at awards ceremonies?

The answer to this question is drawn from Paul Feldwick's previous book, "The Anatomy of Humbug" as well as a fascinating look back to the origins of modern advertising, 20th century examples from his own experience, and recent studies/works from Binet & Field, Orlando Wood and Byron Sharp: good advertising is popular, something people like and something that makes brands famous.

The book is full of good advice on how to develop - and even create - better advertising. I work as a strategic planner, and I found the idea of getting away from the "essentialist" theory of brands a good wake-up call: instead of theorising about brand essences in a Platonic sort of way, get down to a direct appeal to the senses through a brand's "distinctive assets". And let the "creative process" - if it can be described as such - take its chaotic, iterative, not logically-predictable course.

The book raised questions with me, which is a good sign. Is fame (in a mass-media, mainstream sense) different for niche or local brands? And how does the call for more representation/reflection of people's lives in advertising tally with a return to the fun of the fair, the cartoon animals, the wild and wonderful, satire and general nonsense? Not to mention the much stricter regulations and guidelines imposed on the industry?

Like "The Anatomy of Humbug" before it, "Why does the pedlar sing" is engagingly-written, with a good dose of personal experience and opinion thrown in. I'd recommend it to anyone who works in brand communications and advertising.

And once lockdown is over and I can get back to the UK, I'm heading to the Museum of Brands.

[Jack Frogameni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read on creativity and it’s role in advertising. Feldwick unique criticisms on the destructive nature of creativity, creative awards, and the modern rejection of successful advertising practices (talking animals, jingles). His opinions and critiques are strung together through an insightful delivery of the history of advertising, as well as industry case studies and examples from pop-culture that further supported his stance, and were really engaging!

[Goran Jankuloski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kao da je planirao drugorazrednu knjigu i svojski se potrudio da to i bude, i uspelo mu je. Par ok poenti, par "u moje vreme" govorancije, tona citata boljih autora. No frills, as advertised.

[Wambui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking especially on what creativity means and the limitations we've placed on it.

[Jeff Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, much better to listen so you get the accent and full effect. Funny, yet instructional