Rory Sutherland

It's an old advertising joke told to me by someone who is literally from the Mad Men era, which is you have a copywriter, an art director, and an account man, okay, who are boarding a plane to present work to a client. And they open the overhead locker and somewhat implausibly a genie gets out and says, I've been trapped in that overhead locker for years.

To thank you all for releasing me, I'll give you each a wish. So you can choose anything you want. And they go to the art director who says, I'd like Picasso's life. I don't mind my life, but I want Picasso's life. The locations, the eye, the artistry, probably the women folk, the romantic life. That's what I really want. And whoosh, the art director disappears. And then

To thank you all for releasing me, I'll give you each a wish. So you can choose anything you want. And they go to the art director who says, I'd like Picasso's life. I don't mind my life, but I want Picasso's life. The locations, the eye, the artistry, probably the women folk, the romantic life. That's what I really want. And whoosh, the art director disappears. And then

To thank you all for releasing me, I'll give you each a wish. So you can choose anything you want. And they go to the art director who says, I'd like Picasso's life. I don't mind my life, but I want Picasso's life. The locations, the eye, the artistry, probably the women folk, the romantic life. That's what I really want. And whoosh, the art director disappears. And then

The genie turns to the copywriter who goes, it's got to be Hemingway, you know. he enumerates a whole load of reasons why he'd like to be able to write and live like Hemingway and whoosh disappears. And then the genie turns to the account man and says, what about your wish? He says, I want those two guys back. I've got an important meeting in two and a half hours. Okay.

The genie turns to the copywriter who goes, it's got to be Hemingway, you know. he enumerates a whole load of reasons why he'd like to be able to write and live like Hemingway and whoosh disappears. And then the genie turns to the account man and says, what about your wish? He says, I want those two guys back. I've got an important meeting in two and a half hours. Okay.

The genie turns to the copywriter who goes, it's got to be Hemingway, you know. he enumerates a whole load of reasons why he'd like to be able to write and live like Hemingway and whoosh disappears. And then the genie turns to the account man and says, what about your wish? He says, I want those two guys back. I've got an important meeting in two and a half hours. Okay.

And there is that element where, and by the way, we could, we could refer to this in everything from things like the shareholder value movement to business quarterly reporting to the extent to which in advertising the, too much money is spent on short-term performance advertising and too little is spent on long-term brand building. And that's not because it's necessarily more valuable.

And there is that element where, and by the way, we could, we could refer to this in everything from things like the shareholder value movement to business quarterly reporting to the extent to which in advertising the, too much money is spent on short-term performance advertising and too little is spent on long-term brand building. And that's not because it's necessarily more valuable.

And there is that element where, and by the way, we could, we could refer to this in everything from things like the shareholder value movement to business quarterly reporting to the extent to which in advertising the, too much money is spent on short-term performance advertising and too little is spent on long-term brand building. And that's not because it's necessarily more valuable.

It's because it delivers measurable results faster. So I'll give you a fundamental problem. The FT wrote a very, very good article specifically about the UK, but I think it applies more widely, which is how did customer service get so bad? Now, the point is,

It's because it delivers measurable results faster. So I'll give you a fundamental problem. The FT wrote a very, very good article specifically about the UK, but I think it applies more widely, which is how did customer service get so bad? Now, the point is,

It's because it delivers measurable results faster. So I'll give you a fundamental problem. The FT wrote a very, very good article specifically about the UK, but I think it applies more widely, which is how did customer service get so bad? Now, the point is,

I felt like writing an article to the FT saying, well, if you occasionally acknowledged there was something interesting about business other than their quarterly financial forecasts, maybe the problem wouldn't have happened.

I felt like writing an article to the FT saying, well, if you occasionally acknowledged there was something interesting about business other than their quarterly financial forecasts, maybe the problem wouldn't have happened.

I felt like writing an article to the FT saying, well, if you occasionally acknowledged there was something interesting about business other than their quarterly financial forecasts, maybe the problem wouldn't have happened.

If you actually discussed marketing occasionally or customer experience or the value of repeat business, if you looked at business from the point of view of what you might call a competition for customers rather than the competition for operational efficiencies and cost cutting, maybe we wouldn't have gone into this total shitstorm. OK, but parking that rant for a moment. What seems obvious?

If you actually discussed marketing occasionally or customer experience or the value of repeat business, if you looked at business from the point of view of what you might call a competition for customers rather than the competition for operational efficiencies and cost cutting, maybe we wouldn't have gone into this total shitstorm. OK, but parking that rant for a moment. What seems obvious?

If you actually discussed marketing occasionally or customer experience or the value of repeat business, if you looked at business from the point of view of what you might call a competition for customers rather than the competition for operational efficiencies and cost cutting, maybe we wouldn't have gone into this total shitstorm. OK, but parking that rant for a moment. What seems obvious?

OK, if you spend some money on acquiring customers, you can see whether it's working very quickly and you can say very confidently we spend X and the value of the acquired customers was Y.