Paul Feldwick

‘This is a fabulous book … it is possibly the book I would most highly recommend to anyone in marketing’ – Rory Sutherland on Why Does the Pedlar Sing?  by Paul Feldwick

Paul Feldwick studies the nature of our creative processes and the ways in which people work and struggle together to make things happen – especially in marketing where throughout history entertainment and selling have gone hand-in-hand. Paul tells us how theses synergies work – from minstrels to medicine show – and how they can be effective again for advertising and brands in the world of popular culture.

It was in 1974 that a young Paul Feldwick joined BMP, Boase Massimi Pollitt – then a rising London agency. BMP was already famous for  memorable campaigns such as the Cadbury’s Smash laughing martians and the ‘It’s frothy, man’ Cresta bear. The advertising culture there was one of selling whilst entertaining.

Paul worked at BMP and its successor DDB for over thirty years and at the end of 2005 departed to work as a consultant, speaker, and author. In 2015 he published The Anatomy of Humbug: How to Think Differently About Advertising – as he says – an attempt to make sense of the contradictory and confusing ideas about advertising that he had lived at the heart of for so long. advertising, brands, and organizations. Published in 2021 Why Does The Pedlar Sing takes the analysis one step further. Misled by managerial myths of rationality and logic and by ‘a cultish misunderstanding of creativity’, advertising risks forgetting how to appeal to the public. But it is not too late. Advertisers and agencies can rediscover why the pedlar sings and why people do buy from clowns.

Paul Feldwick was convenor of judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards. He has chaired the Account Planning Group, and the Association of Qualitative Research Practitioners. Paul Feldwick has a Master’s degree in Organisational Consulting from Ashridge, now part of Hult Business School, and a diploma in Organisational Development: a Gestalt Perspective. Paul’s first degree, from Oxford, was in English. He also has an MSc from the University of Bath in Responsibility and Business Practice.

Why Does The Pedlar Sing? is published by Matador, 2021.