When Marketing Goes Too Far [Elon, Vivek and Forrester] (555)

Show Notes

Is Elon Musk a marketing genius, or has Tesla officially crossed the line from hype into overpromising? Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose kick off the episode with Tesla's latest flying-car demonstration and talk about the real reason for Elon's stunt and what he could have done differently.

Next, the duo digs into two fascinating research reports from Anthropic. Why do the people building AI have such radically different expectations for the future than the general public? And what is AI already doing to jobs inside Anthropic itself? Joe and Robert explore what these findings mean for marketers, employees, and the future of business. It's a heated debate.

In winners and losers, Robert names Braze his winner and Salesforce his loser following Salesforce's multibillion-dollar acquisition announcement. Joe examines the controversial political advertisement from Vivek Ramaswamy's Ohio gubernatorial campaign, asking an important question: Just because you can do something in advertising, does that mean you should?

Finally, in rants and raves, Robert takes aim at Forrester's latest agency predictions, including its forecast that 20% of independent agencies will face acquisition, downsizing, or closure in 2027. Joe celebrates his friend Matt Wilkinson's new academic research exploring the Trust Portfolio concept and the growing importance of human relationships in marketing.

Another can't-miss episode of This Old Marketing!

News Stories

Elon Musk's Flying Car (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/business/tesla-unveils-what-it-says-is-a-flying-car
Anthropic: Expectations for the Future: https://www.anthropic.com/research/expectations-for-the-future
Anthropic: Employment at Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/research/employment-at-anthropic

Winners and Losers

Salesforce Announces Braze Acquisition: https://investor.salesforce.com/news/news-details/2026/Salesforce-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Braze/default.aspx
Ramaswamy Campaign's Controversial Ohio Ad (New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/us/politics/ramaswamy-acton-ad-ohio.html

Rants and Raves

Robert's Rant: Forrester Predicts Independent Agency Sector Will Shrink 20% (MediaPost): https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/418896/forrester-predicts-that-indie-agency-sector-will-s.html
Joe's Rave: Matt Wilkinson's Trust Portfolio Academic Research: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/16/10/520

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Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/

Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/
Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.thetilt.com/join-tilt-newsletter

Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/
Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/

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This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork