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The Eminent Scientist And Nobel Prize Winner Sir Peter Medawar

Better Essays

The eminent scientist and Nobel Prize winner Sir Peter Medawar once wrote:

'Scientific papers in the form in which they are communicated to learned journals are notorious for

misrepresenting the processes of thought that led to whatever discoveries they describe. '

You will have read (and maybe even written) many 'case histories ' describing marketing success

stories. In your opinion, does the Medawar comment also apply to them? If so, what would be a

more accurate description of such a process? (Please avoid the purely theoretical and abstract as

far as possible.)

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics” - Benjamin Disraeli

It will be shown that Sir Medawar’s view can be the basis of an insightful …show more content…

Sir Medawar is suggesting that in an ideal world the figures and research processes

that lead to these figures would be transparent, absent of bias and void of subjectivity. The

conclusions drawn, an accurate, honest review of the activity that would be shared with the client.

The “discoveries” would be based on neutrally sourced information in the “scientific journal” (or

more aptly, the agency deck…)

The language in Sir Medawar’s quote is perhaps too strong and no self-respecting agency and media

space owner would survive long enough in this business if they gained a reputation being “notorious

for misrepresenting the processes” that leads to the conclusions shared with clients. However to

suggest companies and individuals will not tweak arguments and data presentation to rose tint a

campaigns performance, or embellish their contribution to brand success stories, is not only bad

business sense, It is affront to self-preservation imbedded in human nature.

While you cannot “polish a turd”, you can most definitely accentuate your contribution to marketing

successes, as well as emphasize aspects of success from lower performing media campaigns. If you

can’t? Well, let’s pretend it never happened. “New Coke” anyone?

A key part of this quote seeks to explore the relationship between “causation” and “correlation” in

the factors contributing to marketing

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