Get off the Internet

You'll never hear the people at Dr. Pepper telling you to drink Pepsi.
Or Coke.

Why would they?

Why would a tiny venture send their paying customers to one of the big boys?
It makes no sense.
And yet that is exactly what I am doing today.

The man pictured above is Bob Hoffman. He is older than me. More successful than me. And, believe it or not, has more hair than me. His blog also brings in about a million more readers than mine.

So why am I, the Dr. Pepper of advertising blogs sending you across the street for a Big Gulp of Hoffman's Old Time Curmudgeony Goodness?

Because several weeks ago Bob did a speaking engagement at the European Advertising Week Symposium and let loose with 45 minutes of master debunkery.

The video only has 10,000 hits but deserves 100,000 more.

He rails.
He opines.
He breaks out the facts and tears digital ninjas a new digital ninja asshole.

It's a delicious social media smack down.

What I like most about the speech is how uncomfortable the host/presenter/moderator is about letting Hoffman have his day.

He's hesitant and reluctant at the beginning of the talk. He is also sure that Bob is about to shoot himself in the foot with this audience of young ad kind.

Confident that these twenty somethings will send Bob back across the pond with a scarlet letter of shame, at the end of the talk he invites the audience to demonstrate their disapproval. But they don't.

In fact they side with Bob.

Proving Hoffman's point that even the bullshitters, ad people, are tired of peddling this social media bullshit.

Still not convinced?
Maybe you don't have time to watch his entire speech?
Fair enough.
Watch this video, also borrowed from adcontrarian, and tell me we all don't deserve a welt-making smack across the face with the Reality Stick.

2 places marketing dollars are being wasted on Facebook from iMedia Connection on Vimeo.