This is the official view of Deutsche Bank in the US, an institution not normally associated with sensationalism or any form or hystrionics.
After two years monitoring the advertising and sales of 23 big packaged goods mature brands in the US he found that although sales did increase over the following six to twelve months, the gross profit generated by the additional sales was less than the cost of advertising.
Reporting on this today, the normally insightful FT reporter Richard Tomkins gets very misty-eyed and argues that DB has missed the point and refers to a 2001 publication entitled The Hidden Power of Advertising which says that advertising is absorbed by, 'a subconcious mental activity known as low involvement processing'.
He also states that DB should have measured, 'not just the increase in sales delivered by TV advertising but the difference between the increased level and the level to which sales would have declined if there was no TV advertising'.
He finishes off by describing the ability of TV to deliver famous brands as 'voodoo' that it would take a brave FMCG company to defy.
All pretty woolly.
The article is made all the more strange by Mr Tomkins revelation that he owns TiVo and has, 'hardly seen a commercial for two years'.
It's enough to bring a tear to the eye of the modern marketeer.
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