E

E by Matt Beaumont

This is simply the best book about advertising I have ever read.

If you want acerbic observations about the absurdity of advertising, or dire warnings about the threats to the industry and ultimately to our democracy posed by ad fraud, read Bob Hoffman. If you want universal truths about consumers, and how advertising works, read David Ogilvy. But if you want to know, or be amused, or just to be reminded of how it felt before Covid to show up at an agency every day and work in advertising, this is the book.

It is an epistolary novel, which is defined as any work of fiction that is made up of letters or other documents. In this case, the chosen form is emails, and before you decide that the form is going to be too fussy, or too complicated, or you just can’t be bothered, believe me when I tell you that it works brilliantly.

This is not a self-help book. It will not tell you how to get a job in advertising, it does not divulge the secrets of great copywriting or art direction or design, it does not explain digital transformation, or personalization, or customer journey, it will not help you win awards, or get a promotion.

Just read it for the fun of it. It’s entertaining, funny, insightful, and it takes place at an agency in the UK, which, if anything, makes it even quirkier and more amusing than it would be otherwise.

Trust me, read this book. You won’t be sorry.