Michael Farmer is the author of Madison Avenue Manslaughter, which won the 2016 Axiom Gold Business Book Award, the 2017 Independent Publisher Silver Business Book Award, the 2017 National Indie Excellence Book Award, and the 2017 International Book Award.
About the author
Michael Farmer
Farmer has an MBA from Harvard Business School and was previously a Director of Bain & Company. He currently serves as Professor of Branding and Integrated Communications at The City College of New York (CCNY). He provides ongoing strategic consulting services for Chief Marketing Officers and agency CEOs about Scope of Work and client-agency issues.
Michael Farmer, a respected business strategist with 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, documents the dizzying heights of the original Mad Men days and the long, steady slide to today.
He outlines the step-by-step process that led agencies into their current strategic trap, caught between fee-cutting clients and profit-hungry owners.
He offers key insights into how senior agency executives can restore their agencies to health and deliver improved results to their clients, liberating them from the gloom of Madison Avenue’s Manslaughter.
Testimonials
John Seifert, Chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather
“Required reading for everyone in the business of buying and making market-ing communications. If both agencies and clients followed Michael’s advice – and his methods – the marketing world would not just be a better place. The work would be smarter, more cost effective, and more rewarding for everyone involved.”
Ken Auletta, New Yorker media critic, journalist and best-selling author
“A good, swift kick in the butt is medicine every legacy business needs, though rarely welcomes. Michael Farmer administers the kick deftly, backed by years of experience and data. This readable book is a wake-up call for marketers and advertisers.”
Deborah Wahl, Former CMO of McDonald’s USA
“A great and engrossing read. This book is as relevant for advertisers as it is for agencies. After years of CMO tenure declining faster than agency turnover, the work of the CMO has had to refocus on delivering brand growth and profitability. This book highlights how our most valuable partners can refocus, too, and develop a more productive partnership to master the challenges of the VUCA world in which we operate.”
Financial Times
“ In his damning critique of the modern advertising industry, Michael Farmer warns that a dismal combination of technological change and the short-term drive for profit is killing creativity… For any young creative inspired by the lifestyle of ad campaigns and cocktails depicted in the TV series Mad Men, the book is a sobering read.”