Article written June 11th 2025
Well that’s it, Brian Wilson is dead. Leader, songwriter, arranger, genius behind the Beach Boys, the only ever challengers to the Beatles passed away June 11, which marks the end of the 60s for me and many of my vintage. (Peace, Love? Ed).
What I find strange is that one of their early hits in 1964 was Little Honda, watch it here if only for the naughty bits of the California girls. (1) Little Honda Beach Boys RESTORED ReCut COLOR Video TRUE 1964 STEREO HiQ Hybrid JARichardsFilm – YouTube.
Why is this odd I hear you sing. Well the BBs are praising a Japanese car. These are all-American boys, ideals of American lifestyle, yet American auto workers once would take sledgehammers to Japanese cars in protest. (Today they set fire to Teslas. Ed)
This is not a surprise because the Japanese were far sighted marketers, they never sought quick profit, they knew market penetration needs long term thinking. Again, they were family run concerns, Toyoda, Honda etc. with no greedy capitalist shareholders to rattle their cages demanding instant returns. While living in Japan there were wonderful stories about how Soichiro Honda autocratically ran the company which I will recount another day. (Thank God. Ed.) So the Japanese sold their cars cheap. In fact sometimes below cost. ‘The New York Sunday Times’ wrote a piece several decades ago accusing the Japanese of ‘dumping’, the term used to sell cars below cost. Eventually America brought in anti-dumping laws and punishing duties but the Japanese by then had satisfactorily penetrated the market and, like the frog in the slowly boiling water, began to almost imperceptibly raise their prices. But in praiseworthy mitigation the quality was also improving, because they were not cutting R&D, which incidentally is the first thing to go in the neo-liberal, money-grabbing scheme of things. Now the Japanese brands are making big profits, rising from nowhere in the 60s to today equal in income with US made cars, and I suspect the avaricious and short-sighted boards of directors of the US ‘big three’ car manufacturers are weeping into their share certificates.
Well OK, what has that got to do with advertising and marketing? Easy, our very, very, very rich friend Mark Zuckerberg used exactly the same tactic with Facebook. (Again an individual not a faceless corporation). In 2018, advertising on Facebook was very cheap, if not free. It drew advertisers like flies. Many were ecstatic and boasted about the money they were saving. But from 2014 until today Facebook’s CPM (cost per thousand) has tripled, it has risen to 3.065 billion monthly active users, in consequence the company’s worth has risen from US$162billion to US$1,800billion. In terms of ad revenue Facebook is projected to trouser US$156billion, huge compared to conventional media, for example CBS is the biggest, whose ad revenue is just over US8.6billion! So now the frog is nice and tender, and ready to be served. (Yum. Ed)
As for the title of this piece, “God Only Knows’ is one of Brian Wilson and pop music’s greatest ever songs. It’s sublime. On Britain’s ‘Today Show’, the day Brian died, they signed off playing the whole of the song, so after me,
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I’d be without you
Nota Bene
Unpublished article written June 11th 2025
Paul Loosley is an English person who has been in Asia 47 years, 12 as a Creative Director, 25 making TV commercials. And in recent years, a brand consultant. And still, for some strange reason, he can’t shut-up about advertising. Any feedback; mail p.loosley@gmail.com (only in praise of Brian please)