It's funny how things sometimes work out.  Tom Biro and I didn't initially plan on both reviewing "Life After the 30-Second Spot" within a week or so of each other. It just worked out that he was getting around to his review at the same time that I was beginning to read it. He had read it over the summer, I was just reading at the end of October while spending a great deal of time on airplanes. On the plus side, Tom gave me a great piece of advice: Read the book while hearing Jaffe's voice (which you can listen to on his Across the Sound podcast). Trust me. That helps.

The basic premise of "Life After 30" is that corporations and marketers too often fall back on what's safe and known at the expense of trying new things in their attempt to reach customers. While the main target of Jaffe's rant (and it is a rant, if an extraordinarily well thought out and intelligent one) is the 30-second television commercial no form of advertising is safe. Commercials, Jaffe argues, are skipped or ignored too easily or often. DVRs, bathroom breaks, lack of interest in the product and just information overload are all factors that don't allow those commercials to get their message to their audience.

Not only that but the actual audience for any given product may not be watching television at the time that a product is being advertised. That's one of the central themes not only of Jaffe's book but also his Jaffe Juice blog. If a consumer is going to be motivated to action then they need to be addressed at a time that's convenient to them and in a way that's going to allow the pitch to break through the clutter of the thousands of other media messages that are encountered throughout an average day. One of the points that jumped out at me is where Jaffe talks about a mom who has one hour a day to herself to watch television. She spends all day thinking about toilet paper, kitchen cleaner, school clothes and the other minutia that compromises her day. Now during that one hour she has to watch her show (which she recorded on her DVR because broadcast schedules also aren't convenient to her) how likely is it that a commercial for paper towels is going to raise anything but frustration in her?

It's all about appealing to the consumer at a time and in a way that works for them. It's what Jaffe calls "permission advertising." That means the consumer is saying that it's OK at that time and in that way for them to view advertising. Jaffe throws out the idea of a carmaker putting a long-form advertisement on a cable outlet in the wee hours of the night. Let people know (most likely via their DVR menu) that this will air and they can record it overnight if they like. If someone is in the market for a new car they'll record it and then - and here's where it differs from most traditional TV spots - they'll watch it. And they'll watch the whole thing if it's done creatively (read: don't show a car that will primarily used to drive to Target scaling a sheer cliff wall) and in a way that delivers important information to them. How many people actually know what APR stands for, Jaffe asks. And yet it's part of every car commercial.

It's not just the 30-second television commercial that Jaffe has in his crosshairs, although it serves as a kind of Rosetta Stone in that he keeps coming back to it even when discussing other mediums. When he talks about internet advertising (not paid search, but banner-ad type ads) he talks about how so many of them replicate the same mistakes TV ads make. They're not sufficiently targeted, they don't have a strong enough call to action and when they're not outright annoying they're too often boring.

It's the lack of targeting that seems to be Jaffe's thesis. To much advertising takes the "throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks" approach. In an age where people are more connected than ever - and have offered more personal information in exchange for that connectedness - what excuse to advertisers have for not appealing to an appropriate and relevant audience? People are watching TV, they're on the internet, they have cell phones, portable wireless devices and a host of other ways to make sure they are never at a loss for an electronic or other media. So why not try harder to reach them in different and differently appealing ways? And remember, it's that array of options that are often being utilized either in place of or at least at the same time as they're watching television.

All Jaffe wants is for advertisers to try harder. Don't just throw in TV advertising because it's always been done and their competitors are doing it. Don't become part of the filtered-out clutter. Be bold. Try long-form content creation. Try branded entertainment. Create webisodes that not only can be viewed online but can be downloaded and passed around among viewers via email. Latch onto passionate users of your brand and see how they can become evangelists for you. Be different. If you encounter corporate push-back, then make a case for your risky move. If it's something that is truly original, interesting, well-targeted and makes a strong call to action that's impossible to resist, than you just might succeed.

While Jaffe never says whether the 30-second spot is dead, dying or just about to be mortally wounded one thing he never vacillates on is that it's not being utilized to it's full potential. While just about every commercial now has a web address for the product or company there's no motivation for the consumer to do so. If I see a commercial for Papa John's and at the end of it I see the URL for the restaurant what is there that's going to move me to drop what I'm doing and check it out?

I don't know if I've adequately (or at all) made it clear that "Life After the 30-Second Spot" is excellent. As I mentioned to Jaffe earlier, the person on the plane next to me as I was reading it must have thought it was some sort of manifesto. Honestly, it sort of was. It's a call for companies to be bold and creative in their approach to advertising. The book should be read as both an extension of and a starting point for Jaffe's blog. The blog, you'll notice, has categories that more or less match up with the chapters of the book. If you read the book, you have to read the blog. If you've been reading the blog, I highly recommend you pick up the book. It's the cheapest piece of business advice you'll get - even if you drop $1 in Jaffe's tip jar on the official book site for any advice you take.