Category: post

Advertising Effectiveness

If you ever wondered about the effectiveness of advertising in turning a product or a campaign around (for good or for worse), this might help. According to numbers published by WSJ,

43% of all spending by Super PACs so far has been to oppose Newt Gingrich.

75% of all ‘opposing’ spending by Super PACs has been targeted at Newt Gingrich

Super PAC spend opposing Newt Gingrich was 8.7 times of spend supporting him.

If the result in South Carolina and the ratings in Florida are any indicator, these figures seem to be presenting a pretty damning statement against advertising effectiveness.

Books, Writing & Young Readers

‘You sound critical.’
‘ I am only pointing to the obvious. If he hadn’t wasted so much of his life correcting students’ grammar and sitting through boring meetings, he might have written more, perhaps even bwritten better. But he was not a child. He knew what he was doing. He made his choice.’
‘On the other hand, being a teacher allowed him contact with a younger generation. Which he might not have had, had he withdrawn from the world and devoted himself solely to writing.’

Interesting point in that last sentence. Wonder how current writers maintain contact with the younger generations. Or is that another reason why the younger generations have given up on reading books for leisure, with the exception of fantasy genre – the writers are so out of touch with them they can’t relate to any bit of the books.

Why write?

A conversation about writing books, from the book ‘Summertime’ by J.M. Coetzee:

‘Do you really believe that? That books give meaning to our lives?’
‘Yes. A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us. What else should it be?’
‘A gesture of refusal in the face of time. A bid for immortality.’

There’s more: though it drags a little, I like the way it ends (after the break)

Continue reading Why write?