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The Chaos Scenario |  | Author: Bob Garfield
Publisher: Stielstra Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $12.90
as of 11/27/2009 12:36 CST details
You Save: $7.09 (35%)
New (11) Used (5) from $12.77
Seller: bookrackrh
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 14702
Media: Paperback
Edition: First
Pages: 306
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 0984065105
EAN: 9780984065103
ASIN: 0984065105
Publication Date: August 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
What happens when the old world order collapses and the Brave New World is unprepared to replace it as an ad medium, as a news source, as a political soapbox, a channel for new episodes of Lost? Welcome to The Chaos Scenario. It's here, and Bob Garfield saw it coming. In his roles as Advertising Age editor-at-large and as co-host of NPR's On the Media, Bob Garfield long ago connected dots that many in media and marketing refused even to acknowledge. In this fascinating, terrifying, instructive and often hilarious book, Garfield is not content to chronicle the ruinous disintegration of traditional media and marketing. Instead he travels to five continents for solutions. His journeys begin in a Denmark cow pasture and take him from Estonia to Australia, Israel to England, Montenegro to Brazil, Los Gatos, California, to Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. What he discovers is the answer for all institutions who wish to survive and thrive in a digitally connected, Post-Media Age. He calls this the art and science of Listenomics. You should listen, too.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
The Chaos Scenario November 21, 2009
George W. Godfrey Jr. (San Antonio, Texas)
I've started reading more and more Social Media books - this is one of the best. I really like the style and humor. Bob Garfield does a great job in discussing the demise of "the old world order" as the new world has emerged. I have some new quotes to use from his book: "Let me repeat that: focus group results are not data. They are gab." "Eight people do not constitute a sample. They barely constitute a cocktail party."
"Customer service is the new media department."
"Mass marketing is on death's door, after all, because it is so irretrievably inefficient."
His story of Comcast is incredible!
Then there is my favorite quote from the book.
"Yes, sometimes in the corporate bunker, the obvious can escape you."
I'm sure I'll read again!
Necessary read for the professional communicator October 19, 2009
Jame N. Taylor (Birmingham, AL)
I've followed Bob Garfield's writing at Ad Age for years. After hearing his interview on the book on NPR "For the Record Online," I had so check it out. This is a guy who makes his living critiquing advertisements and he starts out by more or less declaring that advertising (as we know it) is dead. Naturally, that caught my attention and the entire book was well worth my time.
Whether you agree with Mr. Garfield's apocalyptic outlook on the future of media and advertising or not, he presents his case well. If you are a professional communicator, there are definitely some things to think about here.
Oh, and he's funny as Hell at times too.
 Old media is dead, but there's hope for those willing to change October 11, 2009
Edward Boches (ma, usa)
I'm not supposed to like this book. After all, Bob Garfield is the Ad Age critic who basically tears to shreds almost any work that creative people like. So call me a heretic. I think everyone in our business should read it. Garfield doesn't simply claim that old media is dead, that consumers dislike interruptive advertising, and that everything will be digital, he pretty much proves it with a never ending string of facts, anecdotes, and references to actual examples, telling stories about how Six Flags used alternative media to generate awareness and attendance to Lego's techniques for listening to and learning from its target market directly.
His Comcast Must Die story alone is worth the price of admission. A terrific account of how one person (Garfield) can create content, spread the word, inspire participation and force a brand to react to its customers rather than vice versa is vivid proof that the consumer, not the brand, is now in control.
Granted his "listenomics," a Garfield-coined term for how we need to listen, is rather lame and not all that original; anyone with even one ear knows that this is what social media is all about. And his suggestion that advertising agencies will go out of business, or something to that effect, doesn't take into consideration that an agency's greatest asset is its creativity and that as online conversation and community approach a state of white noise, that creativity will come in handy if a brand wants to stimulate conversation, participation and word of mouth.
Nevertheless, Garfield is both a solid reporter and an entertaining writer. Here's his take on promotional items.
"Not that the 30-second spot represents high culture exactly, but it's hard for mere words to convey how déclassé is the advertising-specialty niche. Still, I'll try: they are the white-belt/white-shoes Full Cleveland of marketing. In a digital world, advertising specialties are as analog as you can possibly get."
This is pretty much a must read if you're in any media related business. If you don't already believe the old media world is in deep trouble, you will by the time you finish Chaos Scenario.
Thriving in Chaos October 10, 2009
Larry Underwood (Scottsdale, AZ)
For those of you who figured out the advertising & public relations industries are experiencing a somewhat chaotic transformation due to the rise of social networking (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc); congratulations, you're almost as smart as Bob Garfield. Of course, he wrote this book, while we're sitting on our PCs posting inane 140 character tweets on Twitter (or sitting here on Amazon writing another stellar review). Lol.
Indeed, businesses are going to have to change their strategies, from an advertising or public relations perspective. I was joking about Twitter, but it's actually a viable alternative for some businesses, to actively "engage" their customers (requires listening to what they have to say) in order to find out what makes them tick. This in turn enables the company to manufacture the perfect widget for each individual customer.
Garfield is a cleverly engaging and entertaining guy himself, and this book was fun to peruse. He coined a new phrase ("listen-omics") which captures the essence of this new chaotic scenario; and it seems to be a good description. Essentially, with this brave new world of advertising upon us, the key to success will be thriving in chaos; you can't run; you can't hide. So you'd better get your game plan together and get ready for action.
Garfield has provided the perfect playbook, for our convenience. Good luck.
Media at the Tipping Point September 28, 2009
David W. Brown (Alexandria, Virginia)
Week after week, Bob Garfield displays in his show "On the Media" that he is one of the smartest, shrewdest and wittiest journalists in broadcasting. Readers of his earlier books will not be surprised to see all these qualities and more in his latest book, "The Chaos Scenario." Bob does for "listenomics" what Malcolm Gladwell did for viral marketing: make it seem like the logical, inevitable next thing to expect in the rapidly, constantly evolving world of interpersonal communication. Bob does not set out to prove that books are going to be irrelevant in this chaotic media future we will confront. Good thing, too; he has proven just the opposite.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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