Ad Nauseam
BACK TO BASICS?
BY JOHN MORRIS
SINCE OUR last column, my
inbox has been ringing off
the wall (to grotesquely mix
a metaphor) with a wide
variety of input on twitter,
websites, how to advertise
in a recession and a lot of
“what-the-heck-is-going
on-I’m baffled” comments.
One strong statement that I got
from a couple of sources is the Post/Kellogg’s story
that appeared in the New Yorker recently. (A version of it was
published in the last Boating Industry Canada on page 19.) It
told the tale of how the two cereal companies responded when
the 1929 Depression hit. According the New Yorker, “Post did
the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on
advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the
thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s
profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what
it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.”
But, as much as this may be true, the article notes that the
pages of history are also littered with companies that tried and
failed, while others who were conservative lived to fight anoth-
