Bob Garfield has never worked in advertising or marketing a day in his life. He has no relevant education, experience or data. He owns exactly one dark suit. He is also the most prominent commentator and analyst of advertising and marketing who has ever lived. For 25 years, his AdReview column in Advertising Age evaluated, vetted, parsed, deconstructed and offered uncanny prognostications for thousands of ads from hundreds of agencies worldwide based on such criteria as strategy, communication, taste, ethics, brand relevance, cultural relevance and craftsmanship. Over the past decade, he has also famously – and presciently — chronicled the digital revolution, culminating in his landmark 2009 book, The Chaos Scenario. His previous book, the 2003 manifesto on advertising And Now a Few Words from Me, is published in eight languages.
His new Ad Age column, "Listenomics," explores the frontiers of 21st-century marketing and media.
In another life, Garfield is co-host of National Public Radio's weekly Peabody Award-winning magazine program "On the Media." For many years, Garfield was the advertising analyst for ABC News. He's been a regular on Financial News Network, CNBC's "Power Lunch" and "Adam Smith's Money Game" on PBS. He also has been quoted by every major American newspaper, news magazine and broadcast news program. He is a founding contributor to the Watchdog Blog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He's been a contributing editor for the Washington Post Magazine, Civilization and the op-ed page of USA Today. He has also written for The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Wired and many other publications.
As a lecturer, panelist and emcee, he has appeared in 30 countries on five continents, including such venues as the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Capitol, the Rainbow Room, Broadway's Hudson Theater, the Smithsonian, Circus Circus casino, Nashville's Ryman Auditorium (Grand Ole Opry), the Federal Trade Commission, the United Nations, Harvard University and, memorably, the ballroom of the Westward Ho! motel in Grand Forks, N.D. That's why he bought the suit.