Not so long ago, ad agency people thought they were the coolest and now they live in a world where TV ads are blocked and digital ads are clicked out in an instant. In Frenemies, the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta investigates an industry convulsed by unanticipated change whose ramifications have made Facebook rich and traditional media poor. The head of one marketing giant confesses, “More of our clients are saying, ‘I’m getting screwed by my agency.’” The agencies don’t know how to sell in our changing media ecosystem.
Auletta identifies the “frenemies” as consumers and ad men; the former may dislike advertising but the information it conveys has become intrinsic to the process of making choices. The author gets really interesting when he reaches the assumption-exploding election of Donald Trump, where polling data showing a Clinton victory was disproven and more advertising dollars on TV equaled fewer votes. “Trump’s campaign shrewdly spent more money on targeted digital messages,” because our society has become a conglomerate of niche audiences. And Clinton’s celebrity endorsements hurt more than helped in America’s surly culture of resentment. In the end, Cambridge Analytica beat Beyoncé on Election Day.
