Review by Mike Gange

Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
by Donny Deutsch
Collins Publishers, $24.95 (US) $32.95 (CDN), 260 pages

I am the kind of guy who talks back to TV commercials. I also don’t trust salesmen. And I read the fine print in advertisements. Still, I was pretty well charmed by Donny Deutsch, in most of his book Often Wrong, Never in Doubt.

Ok, he darn well falls apart when he starts spouting his philosophy on life, dating and mating, or when he brags about his accomplishments as a TV talk show host. Still, he is funny, witty, irreverent, audacious, gregarious and even insightful when he talks about ads, ad agencies, and ad campaigns.  In short, Often Wrong Never in Doubt is a valuable book because it exposes the workings of the advertising world that has been elevated to the level of mythology thanks to the likes of Darren Stevens on television’s “Bewitched.”

Donny Deutsch is the son of David Deutsch, who founded a small ad agency under his own name in New York in the 1980’s. After graduating from high school in Queens, N.Y. in 1975, Donny Deutsch attended University of Pennsylvania, then landed employment in the accounts side (as opposed to the creative side) of then top agency, Ogilvy & Mather.  Soon realizing that crunching numbers was not his forte, he moved on to other challenges. Eventually he started working for his father’s firm, and in a wacky and cheeky move, he pitched the promotional prowess of David Deutsch & Associates to the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Tri-state Pontiac Dealers Association.

The pitch had to convince Bob Conroy, a gruff, ex-fighter pilot, who was going to select the ad agency. Deutsch writes, “We went to a junk yard…and over the course of a twelve hour day we delivered a different car part to (Conroy’s) house every half hour. One was a headlight, with a tag that read, ‘We’ll give you bright ideas.’ Next was a fender – an entire fender of a car show up in his driveway! ‘We’ll protect your rear end.’ Then a steering wheel: “We’ll steer you in the right direction.’ By the end of the day, he had the entire sedan and a stack of phrases.” 

The audacity worked, and the Deutsch agency landed a $400 000 account, several times larger than their largest client at the time. This kind of moxie in 1983 eventually helped Donny Deutsch build up the family firm, helped its annual billings rise to $1.5 billion. In 2000, he sold the company for just under $300 million.

There are a couple of life’s lessons to be learned here, but there is also a lot of bluster. Although the stories Donny Deutsch tells will become legends of advertising and add further to the mythology of the field, there is too much conceit, high-octane driven male dominance and one-upmanship in Often Wrong, Never in Doubt to take it too seriously.

This book ultimately proves that it is still a good idea to talk back to TV commercials, mistrust sales guys, and read the fine print in advertisements. But you can have fun in the process.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism courses at Fredericton High.