Then We Set His Hair on Fire:
Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising

by Phil Dusenberry
published 2005 by the Penguin Group

ESC Software Marketing Book Club's September, 2009 selection.

The title of this month's ESC Software Marketing Book Club book refers to the creation of the Pepsi ad in which Michael Jackson had an unfortunate accident. But the book is about insights versus ideas. And it's about creativity, advertising, and business.

Phil Dusenberry is the former Chairman of BBDO North America, an advertising giant that managed accounts for General Electric, FedEx, Frito-Lay, Visa, Mars, HBO, Pizza Hut, Polaroid, and Apple Computers.

Some of the best stories are about the negotiations between Michael Jackson and Pepsi. The five million US dollar fee was not a difficult number for either side. But it was only after the contract was signed that Pepsi learned that Jackson didn't want his face to appear in the ad. Jackson simply didn't like seeing his face on television, and he felt very strongly about this.

The Pepsi folks never dreamed that Jackson would accept a five million dollar payment, and then refuse to have his face appear in the ad. The two parties compromised. They included flashes of Jackson's face in the ad - enough to make him perfectly recognizable, but not enough to upset him about seeing his face on TV. The lesson for software developers and for all business people is that you need to include every detail in your negotiations. Don't assume anything.

The other big surprise for Pepsi was the music for the ad. Not surprisingly, Michael Jackson didn't like the music that Pepsi created. Jackson said, "Why don't you use 'Billie Jean'?"

The Pepsi people had assumed that using Jackson's two-time Grammy Award-winning song would be impossible, or if not impossible, it would be so expensive that it wasn't worth negotiating. In fact, Jackson thought that using "Billie Jean" in the ad was no big deal.

Again, the lesson for those of us in the software development industry is that you should never assume that you know what's important to the other party in a negotiation.

It's a fun book, with lots of ideas that can help software developers, shareware authors, mISVs, and anyone who wants to learn more about software marketing.

Here's a great idea -

Instead of reading more summaries of the books that we're studying in the ESC Software Marketing Book Club, why don't you simply join ESC now, and check out the real thing!

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