THE most over-exposed man in advertising

I know what you're thinking: Alex Bogusky.

But, we're in a presidential-campaign-driven media blitz at the moment. Pundits and reporters alike are on a mad hunt for the  hottest catchy demographic moniker since the birth of the 'soccer mom.'

Today, this week, this month, the most over-exposed man in advertising is Mark Penn.

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Now that even those of us who cloister our media consumption to the rarified liberal world of NPR, NYTimes and blogs have been inundated with his story*, I'm sure you know it: Penn is C.E.O. of Burson-Marsteller and chief strategist and pollster for Ms. Clinton's upcoming presidential bid. And, he recently released a book called Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes.

Four notes:

• Adorable that he's stayed so on message and let whisper only a few of his named trends when anyone with an Internet connection can see the full list in the book's Table of Contents on Amazon.com ... unfortunate that the Internet has changed the playing field for an author's 'tease'
• I'm a huge, huge proponent of niche marketing for big brands - in narrowing your audience to build brand love based on affinity vs. the bland utilitarian approach of being all things to all people. BUT: very interesting when he talks about who will use the book, it's more skewed to entrepreneurs and business types who might leverage the insights for product development.
• Are teenagers really still into knitting? That seems kind of 2006 to me.
• Now that Penn's content creation has Burson-Marsteller on everyone's lips, I think Resource is going to have to step it up a bit to be the talk of thought leadership next year...

*He's even on Change This. The man is everywhere. (Are you really not reading Change This yet? Come on, it's manifestos - go forth and sign up.)

Comments

[Ann]

Never saw the guy.