Bob Garfield is 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 marketing book, the 2003 manifesto on advertising And Now a Few Words from Me, is published in eight languages. His forthcoming The Human Element, co-authored with Doug Levy, will be published in early 2013.
His biweekly Ad Age column 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 has also 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, Atlantic, Playboy, the Guardian, Sports Illustrated, Wired and many other publications.
As a lecturer, panelist and emcee, he has appeared in 36 countries on six 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, Columbia and Princeton universities and, memorably, a Thai kickboxing ring in Cape Town, South Africa.
