Book Review: Hoopla

By Lindsey Lanpher

If you pick up Hoopla, the new book about advertising agency Crispin Porter Bogusky, one of the first things it will do is accuse you of being a mutant. And that’s the good news.

Because in an age of saturated, ever evolving media, where people chuck the norm in search of new ways to connect with their audience, “mutants actually kind of rule.” They are people who adapt to change in fresh and interesting ways. They understand the concept of “survival of the fastest.” They are people who create and devour “Hoopla” which is the name CP+B has given for what they do. It’s a combination of seven elements – mutation, invention, candor, mischief, connection, pragmatism, and momentum. And if mixed correctly, they will inspire people to take action and create a cultural phenomenon.

Like CP+B is a different sort of agency, Hoopla is an unusual sort of book. Upon first glance, one can’t help but flip through the collage-like canonization of their work feeling a bit overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. But that’s probably the point. After all, an agency that once expected its audience to fish out an advertising message from un-curbed dog poop, wouldn’t want you to start at a conventional place like the beginning.

Start at the beginning however, and you’ll be taken through the seven elements of Hoopla. You’ll read inner agency emails. You’ll be told stories like how they were able to motivate hundreds of thousands of teenagers to rebel against Big Tobacco. Or when Virgin Atlantic Airways cancelled all of its other agency pitches when it was served a giant platter of Hoopla. One taste and it was hooked. You’ll learn one of the agency philosophies: Ideas are currency. Where most advertising, as Alex Bogusky says, “is like the same Xeroxed letter that gets sent to you over and over again.”

Hoopla isn’t just a book about ads for people in advertising. “Whether you’re a company building a brand” it says, “a publicist, a graphic designer, a blogger, or anyone looking to get a message out and create buzz, you have to start with a commitment to doing things your own original way.” You’ll have to start by becoming a mutant. Moreover, one of the many lessons to learn from Hoopla is when something doesn’t feel like an ad, you’re more likely to listen. Which is why they’ve been able to create a book almost entirely filled with “ads” and you’re likely enjoy it, if for nothing else, than sheer entertainment.

Hoopla On Amazon