Reading Life After The 30-Second Spot

Chuck Zimmerman

Joe Jaffe BookI promised Joe Jaffe that I’d review his book, “Life After The 30-Second Spot,” so I’m getting started. I am not going to sit down and read it cover to cover. I think I’ll take it a little at a time and comment here when I see something you might be interested in. Who’s Joe Jaffe you may ask. The best way to get to know someone is to visit their blog. You can find out all you need to know about Joe there, that being Jaffe Juice. I’m going into this read in a very positive frame of mind because I already believe that mass media as we know it is not the great message mechanism it once was. There are too many choices. How many media points have you touched today?

So, let’s take the very start of the book and the first chapter title, “The End Of Mass Media.” I’m with you Joe. Right away he talks about the “fragmentation and proliferation of media touch points and content alternatives.” I know he’s writing about the average consumer but I think he might as well be writing about the average farmer. What do you think? How many media choices does a farmer have today? Do you think he/she sticks with just one?

Okay, we’re up to paragraph two. In here Joe mentions that the average supermarket has over 40,000 products up for grabs. That’s a lot of choices and they’re all being advertised somewhere, somehow, right? I wonder how many products are on display at your average farmer cooperative?

Well, I haven’t read too far into the book and I’m intrigued. The subtitle of the book is “Energize Your Brand with a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising.” Sounds like a great talk at a NAMA conference if you ask me.

Media