Contents

Prologue

Everything changes, everything stays the same

Part one In search of brand charisma

Introduction

Brands: thorny, gnarly, ever-so-twisty

The brand organic

Brands must behave, must woo

‘Same difference’: the counterpoint brand

Reframing: originality and busting it up

Brand duality: consider your brand’s Batman

‘Lose the nipples’: what’s in a logo?

‘Back in the day’: nostalgia brands and the retro sell

‘Yours digitally’: brand charisma’s second coming

Sub-brand splendour

Drop the ‘The’: what’s in a name?

Gross assumptions, crumby conventions and the Churchillian view

You are your own mousetrap

Part two In pursuit of the accelerated consumer

Introduction

We are ALL consumers

In strangers we trust

The age of the accelerated consumer

The brand communication model: a bit like a time-travelling DeLorean

Allow me to proposition you

Through a glass clearly

Colour me happy!

Curve, contour and come-on: how persuasive is sexual persuasion?

Truth, lies and advertising

Irrational reasoning, magpie desire and the watch from outer space

‘With great power...’: advertising to our inner superhero

The big H

Buying wine, getting her to drink it and other Adland misdemeanours

Part three Dawn of a media democracy

Introduction

‘Digital’: what it is, what it isn’t

Web 3.0: regime change

Transmedia... in a Tube card

Is social media just a bit antisocial?

A pop culture where everyone’s invited

The second fundamental: avoid launching ghost ships

Mobile: the new dependency

Teen alienation is so analogue

Efficiency and effectiveness: fish with feet sidestep moving trees

Shifting icons

Ed Burns, TriBeCa and the film-making revolution

The fabric of things

Epilogue – take comfort, ‘nobody knows nothing’

Acknowledgements

The lists