The Howard Gossage Show: And what it can teach you about advertising, fun, fame and manipulating the media

The Howard Gossage Show is about the 1960s advertising copywriter, Howard Gossage - and what he can teach today’s advertising industry.At a time when advertising is disliked and avoided by most people, Gossage has a message that is more important now than it was 60 years ago.Decades before digital, he understood the importance of interactive advertising - and the need to break down the "fourth wall" and speak directly and intelligently to his audience. He also knew that the ad was just the first part of a media strategy and aimed to involve all other forms of media in amplifying his message. Perhaps most importantly he grasped the importance of fame. The Ad Contrarian, Bob Hoffman, recently said that if he was a client his three word brief to his agency would be "Make me famous". As you’ll see, Gossage did this for his clients, his "gurus" and, most definitely, himself. In fact, his was a masterclass in Personal Branding. Finally, for an industry that has lost the ability to engage its audience, Gossage had another vital message: we are in show business.