Book adverts on TV (bad ones)

It isn't often that you see book adverts on TV. Unless it's a collection of books from WHSmith or Jordan's new autobiography. So when an advert for James Patterson's book collection appeared at primetime tonight this made me think how strange it is and notice the considerable gap in the market.

When I looked into Patterson I found out that he used to be in advertising, which explained a lot. Unsurprisingly, he was the chairman of America's largest advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson. I found that he ferociously scrutinises the designs of his book jackets and pours money into his marketing campaigns out his own pocket.

So why aren't book adverts rife on TV? In 1992, Patterson's own publisher refused to fund a TV advert which shows how adverse the industry is to TV advertising. As an advertising genius he can clearly see the benefit of advertising to a mass medium which the book industry does not. He went on to fund his own advert and the book was so successful that it has now been transformed into two films starring Morgan Freeman.

But even with all the experience Patterson's campaign is a collection of pretty awful Americanised adverts. They make me cringe....

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