Rory Sutherland knows how to save marketing

Rory Sutherland knows how to save marketing:

Solid read but the following resonated with me especially. As a born and bred PR boy, I disdain advertising as throwing money at a problem — but is is the most interesting description of it to me.

But the act of advertising, especially in expensive media, is a form of information in itself. Since it takes time to recoup the cost of an advertising campaign, it only pays to run one when the advertiser has reasonable expectations of the long-term, widespread popularity of the product being advertised. The act of advertising your product is hence a valuable signal that the manufacturer has faith in its own product — equivalent to a racehorse owner betting heavily on his own horse. It is not irrational that we’re influenced by such as an action — on the contrary, it shows a high degree of instinctive social intelligence.