James Hurman Challenges Scott Galloway's Assertion That Traditional Advertising Is Dead

New Zealand marketer and co-founder of brand health tracking SAAS business Tracksuit James Hurman, has disputed American marketer and Section founder and chairman Scott Galloway’s recent assertions that traditional branding and advertising is dead.

Speaking on the Uncensored CMO podcast, Scott asked “What do the companies that have added over $100 billion in the last decade all have in common? They don’t advertise,” and suggested that “Don Draper has been drawn and quartered.”

“The sun has passed midday on traditional advertising,” Scott said.

“This notion that you can have a mediocre product and instill it with great emotion and just sell a lot of it … That’s done, that’s over. If you have a truly better product, people will talk about it online and word will get out. So a lot of the capital has been taken out of marketing and re-invested in things like supply chain. ‘Can I get you something within 48 hours for free?’”

Speaking in his role as programme director for WARC’s Master of Advertising Effectiveness, James has strongly disputed this hypothesis.

“I'm pretty sure that's untrue–- unless he had a memory lapse that day,” James said.

As part of an evidence-based rebuttal, James systematically dismantled Galloway's assertions with market data, noting that Amazon spends roughly $20 billion annually on advertising, making it the world’s largest advertiser at $3.57 billion, while Google's parent company Alphabet spends $9 billion.

James also noted that Google’s $9 billion ad spend is proof that even digital natives invest heavily in traditional media.

“Data shows Amazon ($20 billion), Apple ($7 Billion) and Google ($9 billion) dominate global advertising – contradicting Scott Galloway's claim that ‘billion-dollar brands don't advertise’” James said.

“Amazon spends about 3.5% of revenue on ads – slightly below the 5% average but still massive.

“When you’re already outspending everyone, marginal gains diminish. Amazon’s team understands this equilibrium.” He contrasted this with Nvidia’s $100m spend. “Different industries, different rules – that’s why generalisations fail.

“Only Nvidia and OpenAI spend relatively little – and even OpenAI ran a Super Bowl ad in 2025.”

The hotel industry provided another key counterpoint. Despite Scott’s claim that he books through TripAdvisor or AI prompts like 'best gym in Berlin', data shows Marriott and Hilton grew market share from 3% in 2000 to 8% today. Marriott's revenue jumped from $14 billion to $25 billion since 2014.

“From $14 billion in revenue in 2014 to $25 billion today – all while increasing ad spend. If brands were obsolete, why does their dominance keep growing?”

He dismissed Galloway’s AI-booking claims as “statistically irrelevant next to millions of brand-loyal customers.”

“Scott's mistake is extrapolating his personal behaviour to the entire market – a highly unscientific approach,” James said. “These principles are backed by empirical evidence – not personal opinions, anecdotes or predictions.”

James also challenged Scott’s use of Nike as an example of advertising's declining value.

“In reality, Nike's decline followed cuts to ad spend, particularly in brand-building campaigns. Evidence shows cutting brand advertising harms growth – exactly what happened to Nike.

“They reduced physical availability by leaving retail stores while simultaneously cutting brand-building campaigns. This double blow explains their underperformance – not advertising’s failure.”

While he stressed that Scott’s interpretation ignored these compounding factors, James did praise Scott’s 'thoughtful, insightful perspectives on many important topics. James cautioned professionals, “enjoy [Scott’s] societal commentary, but take his marketing advice with a grain of salt. Rely on evidence-based principles for how advertising truly works.”

With even historically light advertisers like Tesla now embracing campaigns, James’ analysis underscores advertising's enduring role in scaling enterprises.

“When you're already outspending everyone like Amazon, marginal gains diminish. Their team understands this,” he said.

“My programme teaches principles backed by empirical evidence – not opinions,” James reiterated. ”When educators like Scott make false claims about companies not advertising, it misleads future marketers.

“Enjoy Scott’s commentary on societal issues, but for advertising truth? Look at the data The world’s biggest companies – except maybe OpenAI – are the world’s biggest advertisers. That’s not coincidence. It’s causation.”